
Class 
Book- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



NEBRASKA. 




\ Complete and domppehen^ive De^GPiption 

oM) 00 J OF THE 

AGRICULTURAL, 

STOCK RAISING AND 

MINERAL RESOURCES 

OF NEBRASKA. 

Also Statistics in iregaird to its Climate. 

Compiled from the Latest Reports. 



rut't/i the GotnJ>li7nenis of 


the 




Passenger Department, 




^ ^ 




< 


UNION 


) 




PACIFIC 




FIRST i 


III'MaHPrr" 


V EDITION, 



k TfEDNAN PPHNTINB M 
ST. LOUIS, 



— T n K 



RESOURCES AND ATTRACTIONS 



OF- 



NEBRASKA 



FACTS ON FARMING, STOCK-RAISING, AND OTHER 
INDUSTRIES, AND NOTES ON CLIMATE. 



WITH THE complimp:nts of the 
PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 



^-w-^ 




FIRST EDITION. 



ST. LOUIS : 

Woodward & Tiernax Printing Co., 309-319 North Third Street, 

1893. 



A COMPLETE AND 

COMPEEHENSIYE DESCEIPTION 

OF THE AGRICULTURAL, STOCK-RAISING 

AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF NEBRASKA, ALSO STATIS- 

TICS IN REGARD TO ITS CLIMATE, ETC., 

COMPILED FROM THE LATEST 

REPORTS OF 1892. 



^ 



FIRST EDITION. 



Omaha, March 1, 1893. 



CoPYrjGHT, isor., BY E. L. LOMAX, General Passenger ani. Ticket Agent, 
llKioN PACiiac System, Omaha, Neb. 



AN OUTLINE. 



Witliin the boundaries of Nphr.>«L-o 
and productive soil on the CoMin^nt lu'l'' T'V ""^ '»»«' fertile 
acre is available either for pasture o form ^.Tfe ' "f '"'' ^"^ ^^^^ 
absence o( waste land. The Pl-tte r, 1V " " '''°'°^' «° entire 

N.obrara are the principal interior nte;/:^'^"' ^''^"°™' I-oup and 
southeast. Each of these large st,"Ims ,1 TT^ '"'" "^'^ '° <'''«'. or 
bottomlands alor.g the riversir et d.^tfl""^" 'f' '"''"'"'^^- ^he 
muchpreferredforgeneralfarmh'g 1 f^,:f ;""'"«'' '""y 'and is 
and an .nexhaustible State fund from wh ch n ' T- "' ""'^"^ ^*°°>^. 
m every village and almost every v^lev r,il 7"^^T "'"'"^ "^""'"^^^ 
State, and a most invigorating and healtT^l' '^"'^^' g'-idironing the 
Nebraska desirable, in every sense of the 7 'T'' '"'"*''"> ^ ™"--ke 
wonderful fertility of its soil „„H . '^™' ^°' <» residence The 

satisfactory returnVfofhir 'b " for^W o?''d^"r "^^ '-^'"'"^"- 
cereals, orchard and vineyard crops aid^ '^T ^"'"^ ^^^P'<"^ '» ^H 

Nebraska offers especial ind.l^e /s," '""'"u''^'""""^"' P<''^t"'-age, 

growers. The railways afford quck„d 2 I " '"' '"'" ^"'«'^- 

ocal and foreign markets. By ^^ s4 em oT? traasportation to excellent 
mes leading to and into Nebraska the ^ro^ ^"* ' '■^''' '" f°'<'« ™ «•« 
;s at no disadvantage with his £^1™ low "'fK"" *<= ^'^^™^'^^ Plains 
his products is concerned. GraS brinT "''^'"?<^'-^' ^° ^^ as marketing 
Nebraska as it does in an interi rdty ^W " P '" *" ^"'"''^^ ''''^ - 
being created in the mining and stock 11 ""^"^"^ ^^'^' "" ™«rket is 

State is especially fortunate in ftstX^hr'""', '° *^ ^'''- ^''^ 
m round numbers, is over one miili™ ^i'- P^P^'^'t'on of Nebraska, 

when census returns were n^de Soter 6o'"' '''"^^" ^'^"^"^ ^^^^ 
nearly fifty million acres. Out ^f thl Z « ^^\^^^^- "s total area is 
of which is arable, 100,000 t^nns have "!f'''^<'^"' "^'^^ "f 'and, nearly all 
not cultivated, other millions of acre! nZ "n'- "* '"'"'°"'' "* '""'es 
setWement. .Nebraska is easily caprblen '"' '™'"^ ™^ ^'"«'-«d '"r 

millions of people. She wUl h.ve » , «"PPO''ting not less than three 

will be seenlthereforetlt there '" '^ '"'«''" Papulation some day. It 
Of room and a worirof oppo tu^i irT'T '" '''' ^''^'^ ^'^-'i™ " 
are no longer to be hJlTZlTr^t:: ' " "'""^ ^^"'«'-^- ^^-^^^ 
terms in the more thickly-settled,!"'? P"«f on phenomenally favorable 
50 per cent lower than if t^e '^^^ .S S?t "'? '''''' "^°"«'' P"-^ range 
are large bodies of good land sfflo^ the marke" t''^"''^™ """'''^''^ «^«- 
the reach of poor people, and as L?L"f' /' P""^' ^^ich are within 
acres of Government L IsstiU unnc., !"!''' "'"''' ^'' ""'"'ons of 
States land laws. " "moccupied to be had under the United 



CONTENTS. 



Location, Area, Physical and Geological Features. — Topographical 
Description — Louisiana Territory — First Settlement— Great Amer- 
ican Desert 7 

Area of Nebraska.— Compared with New England States— Counties 
—Geographical Center of the Union 9 

Surface Configurations. — Rolling and Billowy — Bad Lands — Form- 
erly a Great Fresh Water Sea— Fossil Bones— Prairies, Hills and 
Valleys 12 

Rivers of Nebraska.— The Navigable Missouri— The Platte with its 
Unexcelled Water-Power, Numerous Tributaries and Islands, and 
Possibilities for Irrigation Purposes— The Republican with its 400 

Fertile Valleys— The Niobrara, Blue and the Loups 15 

Lakes op Nebraska .• 18 

Geology of Nebraska. — Rocks of the Carboniferous Age 19 

The Soils op Nebraska. —Top Black Soil 10 to 15 Feet Deep— Alkali 
Soil 22 

The Wonderful Productiveness op Irrigated Land 24 

Cultivation op the Soil Productive op Increasing Rainfall 24 

The Relation of the Soil to Good Roads 26 

The Valley of the Platte. — An 'Agricultural Paradise 28 

The Beet Sugar Industry.— Past, Present and Future— Beet Sugar 
Industry in Nebraska — Views of a Veteran 28 

Grand Island and Norfolk Beet Sugar Factories.— Good Money in 
Beets— Knack About Thinning — Some Results — Transformation of 
the Beet— Nothing Wasted—A Wonderful Process— Taking off the 
Syrup 40 

Mineral Resources.— Gold, Copper, Iron,- Ochre, Lead and Zinc— 
Phosphate— Magnesia— Coal— Peat— Clays— Potter's Clay— Marl- 
Salt — Gypsum — Limestones 48 

Timber.— Black Walnut— Poplar— Elm— Oaks— Yellow Pine— Ash- 
Red Cedar— Hickory— Willow— Cottonwood— Maple— Sycamore— 
Mulberry— Box Elder 54 

Fauna of Nebraska. — Resources in Game and Fish 55 

Climate.— Averages from 1878 to 1891 56 



6 CONTENTS. 

Healthfulness op Nebraska. — Malaria and Pulmonary Diseases 
Unknown — Remarkable Rarity of the Air — Meat Cured in the 
Open Air 57 

Union Pacific System.— Nebraska Division— Union Pacific in 
Nebraska — The Grand Lever in the Development of the State- 
Vast Regions Opened up to Settlers. 59 

Tabulated Statistics.— Growth of Towns and Cities— Important Agri- 
cultural Products of the State G2 

Public Education.— The System— Establishment of Public Schools- 
Minimum Length of School Year — Prescribed Studies — State 
Supervision— Education of Teachers— Higher Education— County 
Supervision — Text Books — Local Supervision — Teachers — Taxation 
—Schools in Cities— The Endowment— Some Interesting Statistics. 64 

The University of Nebraska.— Located at Lincoln— Tuition is Free 
— Academic, Law and Industrial College Departments 68 

State Normal School. — Located at Peru — Buildings — Attendance — 
Aim — Apparatus and Cabinet — Admission 72 

State Industrial School. — Located at Kearney ..^ 73 

Girls' Industrial School for Juvenile Delinquents. — Located at 
Geneva r... 74 

Industrial Home for Women.— Located at Milford 75 

Deaf and Dumb Asylum. —Located at Omaha 75. 

Institute for the Blind.— Located at Nebraska City 76 

Institute for the Feeble-Minded. — Located at Beatrice 77 

Ii?SANE Asylums. — Located at Lincoln, Hastings and Norfolk 77 

Private Institutions.— Statistics Relating Thereto 77 

Nebraska Lands and Cereals. — Good Crops in Wheat, Corn, Oats 
and Barley— Broom Corn Very Profitable Crop— Good Results 
from the Sugar-Cane 78 

Tobacco 79 

Live Stock Interests 80 

Some Advantages 81 

Some Nebraska Towns. — Location, Population and General Features 
of the Leading Cities and Towns— Omaha — Valley — Fremont — 
Schuyler — Columbus — Oconee — Platte Center — Madison— Norfolk 
—Genoa— Albion— Fullerton— Cedar Rapids— Grand Island— St. 
Paul — Scotia — Ord — Loup City — Kearney — Lexington — Gothen- 
burg — North Platte — Ogalla'ia — Julesburg — Sidney — Hastings — 
Fairfield— Alma— Fairbury— York— Lincoln— Beatrice 82 



NEBRASKA 



LOCATION, AREA, PHYSICAL AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES. 



Nebraska, with a grand expanse of territory, lies in the geographical 
center of our national domain, extending from the 40th to the 42d degree 
of north latitude, and from between the 95th and 96th to the 104th degree 
of longitude, west from Greenwich, and has a total area of nearly 77,000 
square miles. The shape of the State is nearly a parallelogram, its north- 
eastern portion being rounded off by the Missouri river, while its south- 
western corner is encroached upon in straight lines by Colorado to the 
extent of some 7,500 square miles. Its greatest length from east to west 
is 412 miles. Its width from north to south is 208 miles. It is bounded on 
the north by South Dakota, on the south by Kansas and Colorado, on the 
west by Wyoming and Colorado, while along its northeastern and eastern 
boundary rush the waters of the. mighty Missouri river, separating 
Nebraska from the States of Iowa and Missouri. The Platte river, in its 
course eastward from the Rocky mountains, passes through the entire 
length of the State, dividing it into two nearly equal portions, and, with 
its tributaries in their never-ceasing flow, contributing to the fertility of 
the great central region, while the v/aters of the Niobrara on the north, 
and the Republican on the south, perform the same kind otfice for those 
sections of the State. The most important of the tributaries of the Platte 
are the Loup and the Elkhorn, which flow southeastwardly through lovely 
and productive valleys till their waters mingle with the greater stream. 
The southeastern portion of the State has the beautiful rivers, the Blue 
and the Nemaha, fringed with timber and abounding with mill sites, 
watering that fertiie region. The Indian title ''Nebraska" is said to mean 
''water valley," or "shallow water," probably in reference to the River 
Platte. 

While the territory now included within the limits of Nebraska was 
among the earliest reached by the Spanish explorers from Mexico — in 
A. D. 1541 — its soil lay undisturbed by civilized man until comparatively a 
recent date. 



8 NEBRASKA. 

On April 30th, 1803, the territory of Louisiana, within the boundaries 
of which Nebraska was included, was ceded by France to the United 
States; and during the following year the country along the banks of the 
Missouri river, from the Nemaha to the Niobrara, was explored by Cap- 
tains Lewis and Clarke, who concluded treaties with the various Indian 
tribes. In 1810 the American P'ur Company established a post at Bellevue, 
a few miles south of the present site of Omaha. The first steamboat to 
reach Nebraskan waters ascended the Missouri to Fort Lisa, about five 
and a half miles below Omaha, in connection with Major Lang's expedi- 
tion to the Rocky mountains. In 1842 Colonel Fremont explored the 
Platte river country. The Indian tribes having ceded their lands, except 
reservations, to the United States government, the territory was organized 
and thrown open for settlement in 1854. The first settlements were made 
during the same year at a few points along the Missouri river, namely, 
Omaha, Bellevue, Plattsmouth and Nebraska City, The Mormons had 
previously attempted a settlement at Florence. In 1860 the population 
numbered 28,841. On March 1st, 1867, the State was admitted into the 
Union with a population of 60,000. 

The Great American Desert of our forefathers spread its arid, lifeless 
mantle of sand over thousands of square miles of the great western basin 
of the Mississippi. In latitude north and south, and in longitude east and 
west, the awful barrenness extended without limit. Civilization might 
approach it on the east, or grow toward it from the west, but cross the im- 
passable barrier it never could. The superheated air arising from the 
parched and lifeless clays and sands of this American Sahara, withered 
the verdure and stifled the creatures around its very borders. Such was 
the Great American Desert; but it has now disappeared from the maps^ 
and a garden State, peopled by a million and a half souls, has taken its 
place. 

In the midst of this seemingly hopeless sterility, Nebraska— "the- 
country-of-broad-rivers," as some say the name implies— touched by a 
magic spring, sprang up and pat to shame the ancient desert myth, forever 
casting out the grim spectre from her fruitful borders. 

Omaha was founded on the eastern borders of the desert; then the 
founders of the city of Lincoln penetrated the borders, aud this being 
about the limit to which civilization could hope to attain, it seemed a suit- 
able place for the capital. After them came Grand Island, Hastings, 
Kearney, North Platte, Sidney and other towns, until the confines of the 
State were reached . 

Thirty-five years ago the desert limits were just w0St of the tier of 
counties bordering on the Missouri river. Then they were moved west 
seventy-five miles, and then the desert line was set up near Kearney, 
about two hundred miles west of Omaha, It is beyond the limits of the 
State to-day. Little by little the Great American Desert has faded 
away. 

Where the imaginary desert was, countless homes now are. 



NEBRASKA. 9 

So much, then, for the American Desert in Nebraska ; a State of such 
magnificent extent, and of slich ever-varying physical features, as to fit it 
for all the complex needs of habitation rather than for the sterile wastes 
of the wilderness. 



AREA OF NEBRASKA. 

But we must consider the broad area of this paradise of a desert, whose 
vast extent must always kindle the patriotic enthusiasm of her citizens, 
and inspire even strangers with admiration. Yet, with all the vastness of 
the territory of this young empire, what State has so little waste land? 

77,000 square miles, or 49,000,000 acres in area ! 

It ranks among the great States of the land. 

It could be spread overall New England, and yet have 11,000 square 
miles left over. Even the little notch whittled off the southwestern 
corner of the State by Colorado would make six States as large as all 
Rhode Island, and make about two States the size of Connecticut, and 
about one the size of Massachusetts. 

It takes as long a time to go by rail diagonally across this great region, 
as it does to go from New York to Chicago, that is about twenty-four hours 
in round numbers, the distance being some five hundred miles. 

The southern boundary of Nebraska is the fortieth parallel of north lati- 
tude, its northern boundary line the forty-third parallel of north latitude. 
Beginning on the ninety-fifth meridian, the State covers eight degrees of 
longitude, the one hundred and fourth meridian of longitude west from 
Greenwich forming the western boundary of the State, as far as the forty- 
first parallel of north latitude. Here an offset in the southwestern corner 
is bounded by latitude forty-one degrees north, and by a line a few miles 
west of longitude one hundred and two. 

But suppose we take Nebraska by the four corners, and superimpose it 
on the eastern States having the same latit- " Then Omaha will cor- 
respond to New York City, :?eatrice to Philacolphia, Kearney U ^^arris- 
burg, Sidney to Pittsburgh, Valentine to Rochester, and Crawiox^ tv. • 
Buffalo. It would cover most of New York, New Jersey and Pennsyl- 
vania, extending as far west as Ohio. 

There are ten counties in Nebraska, any one of which is larger than 
the whole State of Rhode Island. The area of Cherry county alone is 
larger than that of all Connecticut by nearly one thousand square miles. 



10 NEBRASKA. 

The State ia divided into ninety -three counties as follows: 



COUNTIES. ■ Sqwe 

Adams 552 

Antelope 864 

Arthur -. 720 

Banner 756 

Blaine , 720 

Boone 692 

Boxbutte 1,080 

Boyd 

Brown 1,020 

Buffalo 882 

Burt 468 

Butler 583 

Cass 530 

Cedar 735 

Chase 888 

Cherry 5,668 

Cheyenne ;. 3,288 

Clay 576 

Colfax 400 

Coming 576 

Custer 2,592 

Dakota 280 

Dawes 1,404 

Dawson 1,028 

Deuel 2,130 

Dixon 468 

Dodge 520 

Douglas 330 

Dundy 912 

Fillmore 576 

Franklin 576 

Frontier 972 

Furnas 720 

Gage 864 

Garfield 576 

Gosper 468 

Grant 720 

Greeley 576 

Hall 552 

Hamilton 576 

Harlan 576 

Hayes 720 

Hitchcock 720 

Holt 2,714 



Topulation Population No. of Per cent 
1890. 1880. Increase. Increase. 



24,303 


10,235 


14,068 


137.45 


10,399 


3,953 


6,446 


163.07 


91 




91 
2,435 
1,146 




2,435 
1,146 










8,683 


4,170 


4,513 


108.23 


5,494 




5,494 

695 

4 359 




695 






4,359. 
22,162 






7,531 


14,631 


194.28 


11,069 


6,937 


4,132 


59.56 


15,454 


9,194 


6,260 


68.09 


24,080 


16,683 


7,397 


44.34 


7,028 


2,899 


4,129 


142.43 


4,807 


70 


4,737 


6,767.14 


6,428 




6,428 
4,135 




5,693 


1,558 


• 265.40 


16,310 


11,294 


5,016 


44.41 


10,453 


6,588 


3,865 


58.67 


12,265 


5,569 


6,696 


120.24 


21,677 


2,211 


19,466 


880.42 


5,386 


3,213 


2,173 


67.63 


9,722 
10,129 




9,722 




2,909 


7,220 


• 248.20 


2,893 
8,084 




2,893 
3,907 




4,177 


93.54 


19,260 


11,263 


7,997 


71.00 


.58,008 


37,645 


120,363 


319.73 


4,012 


37 . 


3,975 


1,743.24 


16,022 


10,204 


5,818 


57.02 


7,693 


5,465 


2,228 


40.77 


8,497 


934 


7,563 


809.74 


9,840* 


6,407 


3,433 


53.58 


36,344 


13,164 


23,180 


176.09 


1,659 
4,816 




1,659 
3,143 




1,673 


187.87 


458 




458 




4,869 


1,461 


3,408 


233.26 


16,513 


8,572 


7,941 


92.64 


14,096 


8,267 


5,829 


70.51 


8,158 


6,086 


2,072 


34.05 


3,593 


119 


3,834 


3,221.85 


5,799 


1,012 


4,787 


473.02 


13,672 


3,287 


10,385 


315.94 



NEBRASKA 



11 



CorKTIES. 



Square 
Miles. 



Hooker 

Howard 


720 

576 


Jefferson 


576 


Johnson 


3m 


Kearney 


525 


Keith 


1,254 


Keva Paha 


G()0 


Kimball 


923 


Knox 


1 100 


Lancaster 


864 


Lincoln 


2,580 


Logan 


576 


Loup 


576 


McPherson 


620 


Madison 


576 


Marrick 


440 


Nance 


436 


Nemaha 


391 


Nuckolls 


576 


Omaha Reserve 




Otoe 


609 


Pawnee..^. 


432 


Perkins 


882 


Phelps 


576 


Pierce 


576 


Platte 


gQ9 


Polk 


439 


Red Willow 


720 


Richardson 


545 


Rock 


856 


Saline 


576 


Sarpy 


230 


Saunders 


740 


Scott's Bluff 


756 


Seward 


576 


Sheridan 


2,180 


Sherman 


576 


Sioux. 


2 046 


Stanton 


432 


Thayer 


576 


Thomas 


720 


Thurston 


398 


Valley 


576 


Washington 


381 


Wavne 


444 


Webster 


576 


Wheeler 


576 


York 


576 



Population 
1890. 

426 

9,430 

14,850 

10,333 

9,061 

2,566 . 

3,920 

959 

8,582 

76,395 

10,441 

1,378 

1,662 

401 

13,669 

8,758 

5,773 

12,930 

•11,417 



Population 

1S80 



25,403 

10,340 
4,364 
9,869 
4,864 

15,437 

10,817 
8,837 

17,574 
3,083 

20,097 
6,875 

21,577 
1,888 

16,140 
8,687 
6,399 
2,452 
4,619 

12,738 

517 

3,176 

7,092 

11,869 
6,169 

11,210 
1,683 

17,279 



4,391 
8,096 
7,595 
4,072 
194 



3,666 

.28,090 

3,632 



5,589 

5,341 

1,212 

10,451 

4,235 

15,727 
6,920 

2,447 
1,202 
9,511 
6,846 
3,044 
15,031 

14',491 

4,481 

15,810 

ii",i47 

"2,061 

699 

1,813 

6,113 

""iob' 

2,324 
8,631 

813 
7,104 

644 
11,170 



No. of 
Increase. 

426 
5,039 
6,754 
2,738 
4,989 
2,362 
3,920 

959 
4,916 
48,305 
6,809 
1,378' 
1,662 

401 
8,080 
3,417 
4,561 
2,479 
7,182 

9,676 
3,420 
4,364 
7,422 
3,662 
5,926 
3,^71 
5,793 
2,543 
3,083 
5,606 
2,394 
5,767 
1,888 
4,993 
8,687 
4,338 
1,753 
2,816 
6,625 
517 
3,067 
4,768 
3,238 
5,356 
4,106 
1,039 
6,109 



Per cent 
Increase. 



114.76 
83.42 
36.05 

122.52 
1,217.53 



134.10 
171.97 
187.47 



144.57 
63.98 

376.32 
23.72 

169.59 

61.52 
49.42 

303.31 

304.66 

62.31 

58.00 

190.31 

16.92 

"38!69 
53.43 
36.48 

"44.*79 

2:1*6.48 
250.79 
154.77 
108.38 

2,8i3.*76 
205.16 

37.52 
658.79 

57.80 
161.34 

54.69 



Totalfor State 76,840 1,058,910 452,402 606,508 134.06 



12 NEBJiASKA. 

But in addition to the distinction as a State of remarkable distances, 
Nebraka bears also the prouder distinction of being the State in the Union, 
where illiteracy is reduced to a minimum. 

Perhaps it is in virtue of the excellence of the schools and university- 
system, that the State produces more scholars and fewer illiterates than 
any other State in the Union. 

But another matter must not escape our notice. Boston may lay just 
claims to being the hub, but Nebraska is the center of the United States, 
Kearney being called the Midland City. 

The geographical center is said to lie in Cherry county. 



SURFACE CONFIGURATIONS. 



The surface of Nebraska, " like the suddenly petrified waves and billows 
of the ocean," is constantly rolling. Level as it may appear in places, it is 
ever-varying and restful. 

That monotony which eastern people expect is not found. 

It is an exhilarating and impressive sight to drive over these rolling 
billowy prairies, in an air so clear that the topography of the country round 
about for miles is pictured before the eye. Wave rising above wave, 
carpeted with the luxuriant green found only in the nutritious prairie 
grasses; between the countless billows as many troughs clad in the living 
green. 

The landscape seems one magnificent expanse of greensward, as closely 
clipped and as carefully kept as that of an ancient EngHsh lawn. The 
close-cut effect is due in many places to that sweetest of grasses, the buffalo 
grass, which is so close-cut and short, scarcely two inches high, that the 
whole eSect is that of a great lawn. Besides, since there are no weeds and 
underbrush to litter it, and no trees to strew limbs and leaves upon it, the 
great lawn stretches beyond the range of human vision, as if it had been 
raked and set to rights throughout, for the special gratification of the glad 
beholder. 

But these are ephemeral sights of too short a life for any but the pioneer 
to see. For, like the primitive races and the forest primeval, they are soon 
changed. 

To-day orchards, vineyards, and fields of grain bend where yesterday 
the prairie grasses grew. So stoutly has the great tide of immigration set 
in to all the States throughout this inexhaustible belt, that every primitive 
billow must soon show farms, schools, villages and cities. 

To all but the naturalist, perhaps, this picture is brighter than the other. 
But nature unadorned is fairest. 

While there are no mountains in Nebraska, yet it must not be forgotten 
that much of the State is mountain high, and that there are some very 
goodly hills to still further diversify the landscape. Then in the region 



NEBRASKA. 13 

known as the Bad Lands— it were better called the "good lands"— there 
rise up into the air those titantic, castellated battes, of such infinitely 
varied forms and never-ending grandeur, that men travel the world over to 
see them. 

Many of these are mountain high, and rise out of the verdure at their 
bases by bare and nearly vertical walls. 

The low and level places of the State are often of vast extent, and yet 
there is no problem of drainage to be solved, for the State rises gradually, 
and of course imperceptibly, at the average rate of some eight or ten feet to 
the mile, as we go west. 

But whence comes all this beauty, diversity and infinite variety, in the 
surface configuration? 

To understand this we must consider how, in every lake— for Nebraska 
was once a lake— each river, creek, and brook, brings and deposits in the 
lake bed the richest lands washed from a thousand hillsides. Eventually 
the lake is entirely filled with its inexhaustible deposit of fertile soil. 
Then as the earth's crust constantly undergoes changes of level, it may 
happen, as is often the case, that the lake, now filled up and dried, is raised 
to a higher level, whereupon rain beats upon it, changes of atmosphere act 
upon it, and the lake bed is weathered or eroded into an endless variety of 
forms. Washing out broad valleys in some places, narrow valleys or 
caiions in others; low, round hills here; sharp, precipitous ones tl^re. 
Such is the geological story of a lake. 

Now Lake Nebraska, if we may call it such, omitting other steps in its 
history, was once a great fresh-water sea, larger than the whole State of 
Nebraska. Into it thousands of rivers and rivulets carried their load of 
rich alluvium, and deposited there hundreds of feet of soil of inexhaustible 
fertility, swept from every hillside, and out of every valley through count- 
less geological cycles. 

Around the borders of the lake, beset with a luxuriant, semi-tropical 
vegetation, roved innumerable herds of curious animals, now forever 
extinct. Here the camel, rhinocerous, tapir, elephant, mastodon, tit- 
anotherium, hyena, lion, horse, and other mammals, great and small, lived 
and died. Some being mired, were actually buried aUve. The carcasses 
of others were swept by freshets into the lake, and their bodies, being 
inflated by gases, floated on the surface, and drifted far into the great 
inland sea. 

The bones of these creatures were strewn along the ancient lake bed, 
and buried deep along with the sediment. This will help to explain why 
we find the fossil bones of so many animals throughout the State, but par- 
ticularly in its western and northwestern portions. 

But time is long, and eventually " Nebraska Lake"— as is the final out- 
come of all lakes, then as now— filled up, and its bed became dry land. 
However, the level of the ancient lake bed was raised, making a fine water- 



14 NEBRASKA. 

shed, and instead of the thousands of water-courses that in former days 
have fed the lake with rich sediments, as many began to cut and carve and 
carry it away again. 

Thus out of this ancient lake deposit has been weathered the ever-vary- 
ing and interesting surface forms as we now know them. 

But another force — the glaciers — was at work altering the surface of 
the eastern portion of the State, piling up hills and considerable ridges of 
sand, drifts, boulders and earth, carried from remoter parts during the 
glacial or ice age and dropped here. 

But the latter agency produced little effect on the physiography of the 
State, and need not be discussed beyond this mere mention. 

Naturally this rich sediment is washed thinner in some places than in 
others, but even where thinnest it is still thick. 

Perhaps this lake deposit theory may lead to a better understanding of 
the seemingly fabulous statements about the great depth of Nebraska soils. 
The lake deposit is largely a marl, full of lime and a sufficient admixture of 
sand to constitute that lightness of soil so favorable to agriculture. 

But, inasmuch as Lake Nebraska had its ups and downs in geological 
times, it seems in order now to consider the general elevation of the State 
of Nebraska. 

While the strata of the State are every where practically level, wherever 
exposed to view, yet the whole State is tipped, as it were, a little towards 
the southeastern corner, towards which the rivers of the State tend to flow. 

The lowest point is in Richardson county in the extreme southeastern 
corner of the State, where the elevation is eight hundred and ten feet, 
thence the elevation increases to five thousand feet along Wyoming- 
Nebraska boundary line, and even to as much as six thousand feet at 
Scott's Bluffs. 

The eastern portion of the State facing the Missouri, has an elevation 
of about one thousand feet. As we go west the elevation increases at the 
approximate rate of 1,000 feet for every 100 miles. Thus we pass insensi- 
bly from 1,000, to 2,000, to 3,000, to 4,000, to 5,000, and even 6,000 feet of 
elevation. 

By the time a Nebraskan travels as far west as about the middle of his 
State, whether he realizes and appreciates the distinction or not, he has 
reached an altitude of 3,000 feet above sea level, using round numbers. 
That is to say, he is higher up in the world than he would be in any part 
of Pennsylvania, however mountainous and elevated he may imagine parts 
of that State to be, and at Scott's Bluffs he stands on an elevation more 
than twice that of the highest Pennsylvania mountains, and higher than 
the loftiest peaks in the State of New York, the Adirondacks them- 
selves. 



NEBRASKA. ^^ 



Another way of approximating the average rate of increasing elevation 

mile. " 

Traveling from south to north along the eastern border of the State, the 
ascent is but a foot or so to the mile. 

Along the western border the ascent is several feet more per mile as 
one travels north. 

This whole hydrographic basin then slopes plainly to the east, and at 

ably parallel courses toward the southeastern corner of the State. 
This brings us at once to a study of the 

RIVERS OF NEBRASKA. 

Nebraska, the "Black-water State," or, in "jf ^'f ^^^^ '°f "^; ^^ 

:rSyS:ts%"rSorrr;fthestite,into^^^^ 

Missouri. '^ ., r i.-i« 

Along the Kansas line, or southern part of the State, are the fertile 

valleys which border the Republican and Blue rivers. 

Through the center of the State flows the famous Platte and its numer- 

ous tributaries. ,. i i 

This sums up the rivers in the State. But some of *em part.^ arly 

and fifty miles through the State. 
the Kansas river at Junction City. 



16 NEBRASKA. 

The Republican valley in Nebraska is about two hundred and fifty miles 
long, and every acre of it the very finest for grazing. 

It is well watered by the Republican and its many tributaries and 
lesser feeders. Building stone crops out on these tributaries, and it is 
claimed for the whole Republican system, that no streams in the great 
plains are better timbered. ' ' 

Those flowing from the smith are long, those from the north streams of 
short coiirse, for the width of the entire divide between the Platte and 
the Republican, for a distance of a hundred miles or so, scarcely exceeds 
thirty-five miles. 

This river i*said to average a tributary every two miles, making one 
hundred, large and small, and as the larger tributaries have branches, the 
total number of valleys is thought to equal four hundred. 

Some able writers who have studied this stream — judging from the fact 
that innumerable springs crop out along the north bank, coupled with the 
facts that the Republican valley is three hundred and fifty odd feet below 
the Platte valley, and that the Platte actually has a greater volume at North 
Platte, where the north and south forks unite, than at its mouth, in spite 
of all its tributaries — believe that the waters of this great river are drained 
oS into the Republican by subterranean passages through the sandy soil 
and drift. 

Nerjtt to the Missouri, the Platte is the most important river of the State. 
Rising high in the mountains of Colorado it fiows twelve hundred miles, 
passes through the agricultural center of Nebraska, receives innumerable 
tributaries, especially from the north, some of them being important 
rivers, and empties its waters into the Missouri. It is an interesting fact 
that this broad river, after crossing the State, and receiving the waters from 
such tributaries as the Loup and the Elkhorn, discharges a smaller volume 
into the Missouri than it entered Lincoln county with. Of course evapora- 
tion must take up a large amount of water in the form of vapor from the 
broad surface of the Platte, yet this is more than compensated for by the 
numerous tributaries. * 

But the course of the Platte is through a region of light and very sandy 
soil, which is simply a sponge on a grand scale, which sucks up water to 
saturation. Then some of the waters of the Platte are spirited away 
through subterranean passages. 

There is nothing particularly anomalous in this, however, for no great 
river discharges at its mouth all the water it receives along its course. 
The Yukon, Alaska's great river, discharges one-half; the Mississippi and 
the Amazon, one-fifth; and the Nile, but one-^hirty-seventh, while some 
discharge none at all, but are dried up entirely and disappear before reach- 
ing their mouths. 

This magnificent river furnishes ample food for thought and reflection 
for the geologist and economist. Here is a mighty river favorably, situated 



NEBRASKA. 17 

for the formation of canons on a grand scale, yet it boasts of none, because, 
unlike other rivers of caiion regions, its current is so loaded down with 
sand, that it cannot transport it to the seaboard and dump it there. About 
all it can do is to shift its countless islands of sand from place to place 
without scouring out and deepening its channel. Some of the islands of 
the Platte are fifteen to twenty miles long. 

The river, as a whole, impresses one as being a broad, shallow expanse 
of water, studded everywhere with islands and shifting sand bars, winding 
its way through a fruitful valley varying in width from fifteen to thirty 
miles. 

But the economist sees in the Platte the possibilities of one of the most 
complete systems of irrigation that can be hoped for, and contemplates the 
rich returns which accrue to those agricultural regions that can intelligently 
regulate the watering of their crops, and are not dependent on the erratic 
course of nature. Already this work is begun, particularly in the western 
course of the Platte, and lands that were already fruitful are rendered 
many fold more so, and yet but a beginning has been made in this 
direction. 

Just now we find in Central Nebraska, 250 miles west of Omaha, a 
young Lowell— baby and man at once. In age, an infant, in commercial 
and manufacturing advantages, an adult. This young city has no forests 
in hundreds of miles, no coal fields in reach. She needs none. She has 
power measurably without cost and without price. The Platte river, pro- 
vided by the Almighty and trained by man to do his work, incessantly 
and tirelessly drives the wheels of Gothenburg's factories. When the 
men who projected and accomplished this great work are forever done 
with this world, the Gothenburg water power will still be blessing the 
people and enriching the commonwealth. 

Eminent engineers say the Gothenburg water power can be increased 
to any extent. The power plant has been completed less than a month, 
and already the place is full of strangers seeking locations for mills and 
investments. The rapidity with which western people recognize and 
appreciate business advantages is a most important feature in the West's 
great growth. 

Desire and ability assist at the birth of opportunity. Accomplishment 
swallows up projection. 

Situated almost in the heart of the great food-producing West, about 
equi-distant from water transportation by the Lakes to the Atlantic and by 
the Gulf to all the world, why will not Gothenburg, with its magnificent 
water powder, be one of the great milling centers of the greatest cereal-pro- 
ducing country on the globe? The agencies of civilization to-day are 
electric. The rude implements of the past have given place to the locomo- 
tive, the telegraph, the steam plow and harvester. 

There is no possible hope of the Platte ever being of economic use for 
navigation unless modern electricity, which is becoming the great motive 
power, can be used in propelling suitably modified crafts up and down this 
river somewhat as if it were a canal. 



18 NEBRASKA. 

The means of transportation will continue to be the railroads, and yet 
it seems as if it must completely overtax all lines to transport the produce 
of so great a valley, especially as it is becoming settled with such phe- 
nomenal rapidity, that there seems to be no keeping pace with it. To take 
this in with its full force one should look at a map of Nebraska of a few 
years ago. The white paper on which it was printed was marred here and 
there, perhaps, by an occasional name. But how is the map of Nebraska 
to-day? It is so checkered by railroad lines and so black with the names 
of towns and cities that one now must hunt through a bewildering maze of 
closely printed names to find his own county seat. 

At first the map was stippled with names along the Missouri valley, 
for it was by means of that navigable stream that settlers first entered the 
State. But when the Union Pacific, the first railroad in the State, pushed 
on with forty miles of road west of Omaha in 1865, to which other miles of 
road were soon added, then the line of names began to darken the map 
throughout the whole Platte valley. 

A more telling array than a reproduction of these earlier and later 
maps could not be asked for if the space in this pamphlet would admit. 

The rivers and vallej^s of the Platte system are of smaller extent and of 
less consequence on the south than on the north, because of the narrow 
divide between the Platte and the Republican. 

However, let no one erroneously infer from this that the southern parts 
are a whit less productive than the northern. 

The Loups, consisting of North Loup, Middle Loup and South Loup, 
starting among lakes at an altitude of about 3,200 feet, flow in a south- 
easterly direction about 250 miles, draining in their course some 20,000 
square miles. 

These considered as a system are the most important tributaries of the 
Platte. The Elkhorn, w^hose course Is so erratic that in advancing one 
mile it travels more than three, joins its alluvilW valleys with those of the 
Platte after traveling some 400 miles in the State. The Elkhorn is the 
second most important tributary of the Platte. 

The Platte valley wi^th its-tributaries constitutes one of the most exten- 
sive alluvial regions in the West. But we have seen that many of the 
northern tributaries of the Platte rise in lakes of clear water, which 
naturally directs our attention to the 



LAKES OF NEBRASKA. 



Few are aware that Nebraska can boast of as many lakes as counties, 
and a few more. There are not less than one hundred surveyed lakes 
in the State. They cover a total area of no less than 11,000 acres. 
Thus they expose a broad surface to evaporation ; their waters are carried 
as vapor into the air, and sprinkled as rain over the growing crops. 



GEOLOGY OF NEBRASKA. 

The great water-shed of Nebraska slopes from west to east like a veri- 
table roof to which it has been aptly compared. 

Its geological strata, then, like broad shingles, rise course on course as 
we climb the roof from eaves to ridge-pole, ' 



Tertiary Strata. 



Cretaceous Strata. 



Triassic and Jurassic (Missing), 



Permian Strata. 



Carboniferous or Coal Strata. 



But it must not be forgotten that, just as the shingles on some ancient 
abode may be covered from sight by the accumulations of dust, lichens 
and vines growing there, so our geological roof may be covere(i with sands, 
clays, alluvium, loam, glacial drift, loess, turf, etc., till its great shingles 
are buried and lost to view and overlooked. But dig down under the moss, 
or down below the turf and clays, and the shinglqs in either case are 
brought to light. Some are sound and in place, while others may be pretty 
badly battered and weathered by time, or may be worn out or missing 
altogether. 

Nothing less than the broad Missouri itself is a suitable eaves-trough 
for such an extensive roof. » 

The first or most eastern course of shingles is made up of Carboniferous 
or coal-hearing strata, which cover some six or seven counties, on about 
3,000 square miles, south of Omaha. The eaves-trough of our great 
geological roof is somewhat askew, so the first course of shingles is cut on 
the bias as it were. 

The second course overlies the first, but is even more limited, for it 
covers but one county and touches two others. This is the Permian forma- 
tion, a sort of compromise between the Coal age and Reptilian age. This 
is a rather rare and limited formation occurring in but very few localities. 

By some interruption of unusual moment in the great geological shop, 
the Jurassic and Triassic courses of shingles were never nailed on, but are 
wanting altogether. 

Our third row of shingles is an extensive one, reaching from north to 
south and covering in area about 6ne-third of the entire State. This is the 
Creta'' Mus formation. 

^he rest of the water-shed is entirely covered with Tertiary strata, 
mitting a stray patch of Cretaceous at the corner of Colorado. 



20 NEBRASKA. 

Overlying these, hiding them from sight, are marls, glacial drift, loess, 
alluvium, soil and sod. 

Thus far we have made a cursory review of the geology of Nebraska, 
which deserves a fuller and somewhat more technical consideration. 



EOCKS OF THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE. 



The oldest bed rock in the State is the coal measure, or Carboniferous 
which underlies Richardson, Pawnee, Nemaha, Johnson, Otoe and Cass 
counties, and portions of Lancaster, Sarpy and Douglas, in the extreme 
southeastern corner of the State. ^ 

This bed rock consists of alternating layers of limestone, sandstone, 
shale, and occasional seams of bituminous coal. Some of these shales are 
so highly carbonaceous that they look like a low grade of cannel coal. 
They burn well and afford great heat, and if «s thick as reported— four 
feet — they may have some commercial value for heating directly, or for 
producing gas. 

The coal seams constantly thin out towards the west and north. The 
thickest seam is but twenty-four inches deep, at the most, and in other 
places it thins out to eight or ten inches. The workable beds will average 
about eighteen inches, so that they are of little commercial value, and are 
worked by the farmers only. The output for 1887 was reported as 1,300 
tons, mined for local consumption only, and valued at three or four thou- 
sand dollars. The output for 1890 was 1,400 tons, valued at four thousand 
five hundred dollars. The output for 1891 was 1,500 tons. This coal, 
though of a rather inferior quality, comes so close to the surface in favored 
regions that it has some economic value there, but Nebraska coal can never 
enjoy more than a local reputation, much as the fact is to be regretted. 
Of course, if sufficiently thick, the coal seam would be the most important 
deposit in the Carboniferous. 

Of the sandstones, claystones and limestones in the carboniferous, the 
sandstone is least in quantity and poorest in quality. 

Though fairly thick in places, it seems to have little value as a building 
stone. The claystones, or shales, outnumber all the other rocks of the 
age, two to one. However, while very abundant, the shales have no value 
save as they rot down, in which case they often make good soil, or valuable 
beds of clay, for tiles, bricks and fire-bricks. 

The limestones are the important building rocks of the formation. 
These limestones are pretty generally marked by the presence either of 
rice-shaped fossil shells, or of the hole left by them in the stone. A popu- 
lar name for them would be rice limestone. Sometimes the fossil rice, 
(a foraminiferous shell) composes the rock entirely, just as if some titanic 
rice bin had been cemented into stone by the lapidifying juices. 



NEBRASKA. 21 

The Carboniferous age was characterized by great warmth, moisture, 
luxuriance of vegetation, an<.lr more or less submerged land surfaces. The 
coal was first an extensive swamp, filled, like a modern peat swamp, with 
vegetable matter, which was pressed into coal by the rocks which were 
deposited above. 

The Permian formation overlaps the Carboniferous, and may be viewed 
as a sort of upper crust to that formation, unlike it, yet related to it. The 
sea prevailed at that time, so the rocks and fossils are marine. 

Before they were consolidated into sandstone, limestone and clay stone, 
respectively, the beds of sand, lime and clay were formed in brackish or 
salt water, and inclosed the animals of that time. 

The Permian contains no coal seams. 

But the great interior sea retired aboiit this time, because the land 
slowly rose high and dry ab6ve water, so that no sediment was washed 
from other regions and deposited there. Thus it is that, while the Triassic 
and Jurassic rocks were forming elsewhere, none were laid down in 
Nebraska, so that the next overlapping formation is the Cretaceous, whose 
clays are good for brick, but whose rocks are too friable or even chalky to 
be of much consequence for building or ornamental stones. 

The sea had prevailed again on the land during this age, and along 
many muddy shores immense quantities of shells, leaves, etc., were buried 
and converted into rock. The Dakota group of the Cretaceous is easily 
recognized, being of a characteristic reddish brown color and full of leaves 
and shells, as already mentioned. 

The most extensive geological formation in the State is the fresh- 
water Tertiary. The formation consists of clay -rocks, sand-rocks and lime- 
rocks more or less goherent. 

There are very extensive deposits of loose sand in the Tertiary forming 
the sand-hill country. There are also vast and no doubt valuable peat 
beds, and extensive deposits of marl, valuable as a fertilizer — if ever the 
Nebraska farmer need worry over the enrichment of the soil. 

Over the eastern corner of the State are sprinkled boulders, gravels, 
clays, sands and earth, often in heterogeneous heaps, by the great ice 
sheets and icebergs of the ice age. 

Then the Loess deposit, almost identical with that which has made the 
vine-clad banks of the Rhine forever famous, covers about the same area 
as the glacial drift. 

The very latest deposits in the State are the Alluvial deposits along our 
rivers ; deposits which have been and are still being made in our day. 

But an account of the geology of the State, however exhaustive or how- 
ever cursory, falls short of its most essential object, unless it leads to a 
better understanding of the relation of the soil above to the bed rock 
below. 



K K B R A S K A . 



THE SOILS OF NEBRASKA.- 

It is the soil of Nebraska that constitutes its true basis of wealth. 
Hence it should be carefully studied and well understood. The classitica- 
tion of soils is rather an easy matter. 

There are two kinds to be remembered, the Primitive or native soils, 
and the Dericed or transporter! soils. 

The Primitive or original soils are those made up of the decomposed 
rocks of a region. 

The Derived or transported soils are those carried from one region and 
deposited in another, either by the transporting power of water or ice or air. 
It Is quite apparent, then, that there is a most important relation existing 
between the bed rocks and the soil upon them. Even though the rocks of 
a region were entirely bleak and bare, and utterly destitute of any living 
thing, they could remain so for a short time only, for heat and cold and 
the consequent expansion and contraction crack their surfaces, and freez- 
ing water breaks them up, till, little by little, the solid roi^k for a consid- 
erable distance down is converted into soil ready to catch such seeds as 
are carried by the winds. These take root, grow and perish, and add to 
the crude soil some decayed vegetable matter (humus V all-important for a 
truly fertile soil. Thus, little by little, it grows blacker and blacker 
indefinitely. 

So we have a soil formed out oi the native rocks. 

The top (black) layer is known as the soil, that of a different color just 
below it, the subsoil, and the rocks on wliich it rests as the bed rock. 
Some of the black soil is so deep in Nebraska that subsoil seems wanting 
altogether. The soil is certainly as much as ten to fifteen feet deep in 
many places before a subsoil is reached. A most extraordinary state of 
affairs. 

This phenomenal depth is found very generally throughout the State, 
but particularly in the counties along the Missouri, and those along and 
south of the Piatte. 

Since the eastern counties are carboniferous, consisting of umestone 
and shales in abundance, when these rot down, as they do very readily, 
the resulting soil is excellent. Limestone always adds richness to the 
soil. Shales make a heavy clay soil, bat when sand is present it 
becomes a light and fruitful soil. All these conditions are filled in the 
southeastern counties at least. 

In cretaceous regions abounding in sandstone and chalky rocks, the 
soil is excellent also, though the rotting down of the sandstone tends to 
make an excess of sand. 

Tliis is completely remedied, however, in the case of the eastern creta- 
ceous at least, by the loess deposit. 



NEBIIASKA. 23 

The State University, in preparing for the World's Fair an exhibit of 
Nebraska soils, found even in widely remote counties, that the soil is 
generally good throughout the State, and that, five times out of six, the 
soil is three feet thick before a subsoil is reached. The method of taking 
these soils was to dig out and box, unbjpken, a slim prism of soil three 
feet down. Taken in this way the actual condition of the soil was shown, 
no padding being possible. These soil prisms were arranged side by side 
with glass fronts, so that visitors, gathered together from every country, 
could see and compare the showing which Nebraska soils made with those 
of any State in the Union, or with any on the globe. 

"Agricultural Paradise" and "Garden Spot" are familiar appellations 
often applied to the counties along and north and south of the Platte. Now 
that the desert spectre is ousted forever, men cannot look on these fine soils 
without a feeling that here is the region in which to stake their fortunes 
and erect their homes. This excellent soil exhibit must of necessity 
quietly influence many good citizens who still doubt whither to migrate 
for the betterment of their conditions, to cast the deciding vote for the 
State with the inexhaustible fertility. 



ALKALI SOIL. 



There is no more reason in dreading alkali regions than in dreading the 
so-called American Desert itself. 

Where there are alkali patches the remedy is easy. They even tend 
naturally to remedy themselves. Either surface, or better still, under- 
draining, will prove entirely sufficient. ^ 

All waters contain mineral matter in solution to a greater or less extent, 
hence, if a pure fresh- water lake has no outlet, so that evaporation con- 
tinually goes on, then it is certain to become a saline or alkaline lake. 
But let a saline or alkaline lake have a suitable outlet and it will soon get 
ahead of evaporation, and will scour and wash out all mineral matter, 
and become strictly a fresh- water lake. 

Exactly so with alkaline patches ; they tend with every rain to wash 
out some of the alkali, and that is precisely what will take place. Now, 
if there is no surface water standing to dry up and deposit alkali, and no 
water to bring alkali from below to be deposited on the surface by evapora- 
tion, then this continual washing away of the alkali will shortly clean the 
alkali spot entirely. Drainage is the alkali panacea. 



24 .NEBRASKA. 



THE WONDERFUL PRODUCTIVENESS OF IRRIGATED LAND. 

In Cheyenne county, Nebraska, through which the Union Pacific rail- 
road runs, there is a large tract of irrigated land now open to settlers. 
This land lies under the Belmont canal, which is taken out on the south 
side of the North Platte river and covers between forty-five and fifty thou- 
sand acres of the finest agricultural land. The soil is a rich sandy loam, 
and like all irrigated land, is amazingly productive when w^atered. This 
process, too, is very simple. The canal running on a less grade than the 
fall of the river, soon reaches a higher elevation, from which the water is 
carried in lateral ditches following the natural slope of the land, and 
aiming to reach some controlling ridge or the highest point in the midst of 
a large tract, from which the water can be carried in furrows run with a 
plow to a number of different fields. The water is turned into the lateral 
by a small gate in the canal, and the irrigator, using a long-handled 
shofel, opens or closes the entrance to the small furrows and allows the 
water to spread out over the cultivated field. As there is frequently a 
deficiency of rainfall just at the time the particular crop- needs it, the 
farmer in this way is enabled to water his grain at the proper season, and 
the w^arm, constant sunshine hastens the crop to earlier maturity and an 
increased yield. 

All products common to the latitude are grown on this land, and under 
this system the yield per acre is 60 bushels of wheat, 100 bushels of oats, 
60 to 70 bushels of barley, 75 bushels of corn, 100 bushels of beans, 18 
bushels of flax, 400 to 800 bushels of potatoes, three-fourths of a ton of 
broom corn and six tons of alfalfa. Both winter and spring wheat do well 
in this section, and alfalfa is such a nutritious forage plant that, when used 
for fattening cattle, it is superior to corn, and the profit derived from this 
means of handling frequently exceeds $100 per acre. 

The climate of this locality is delightful. The winters are much milder 
and shorter than along the Missouri valley, and the farmer is able to plow 
every month in the year. 



CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL PRODUCTIVE OF INCREASING 

RAINFALL. 



The steadily increasing rainfall in Nebraska seems to have kept such 
steady pace with the progress of agriculture that early writers spoke of it 
as following the plow. In a certain sense this is true. Surely no one, least 
of all those who have occasion to work in virgin prairie soil in a practical 
way, can fail to discover that it is exceedingly hard digging and tre- 
mendously hard plowing for the first time. Who for a moment could 
expect it to be otherwise? 



NEBRASKA. 26 

Here is a State rich in marls and loess, subject to ilie heating action of 
countless storms, and to the never-ending tramp, tramp of millions of 
herds of buffalo, elk, deer and antelope, that once sought the luxuriant 
grasses of Nebraska above all other regions. If domesticated animals 
tramp down and pack to brick-like hardness the clays in the farm-yard, so 
unnumbered wild herds at large for generations must pack the prairie. 

These unbroken prairies are so hard, firm and smooth, that a bicycle 
can often proceed across them, and carriages can drive over them with 
ease and comfort. They are packed as hard as a well-traveled road. 

What is the effect of all this on rainfall and moisture? 

Simply this, that the soil beneath is covered with a hard impermeable 
crust. The rain falls upon it, btit does not enter it. 

Instead, it flows rapidly off to the nearest rivulet, thence it hurries to 
the nearest brooks and creeks, w^hich, swollen, rush like torrents to the 
tributaries of the great rivei^s, and soon the rain which might have entered 
the soil has left the confines of the State and is poured into the sea. 

Throw a pail of water on this hardened prairie and it flows freely in 
every direction as on a floor, but try the simple experiment on the culti- 
vated ground, and the water is absorbed on the very spot where it fell. 

Once break this hard impermeable surface and mark the change ! The 
refreshing showers which formerly fell and at once rushed away in torrents 
and were almost entirely lost, are now absorbed by the sponge-like soil, 
and saved almost entirely, to be doled out slowly in small streams and 

sipage springs. 

• 
When tlie entire State is under careful cultivation, as it is sure to be, 
then it becomes one great absorbent body, that may be likened truthfully 
to a sponge. 

The soil, loess, drift, marls and clays are often one hundred or more 
feet thick, and as they all drink up the rains the good results are manifold. 
The water is stored away and doled out slov/ly to feed, for many days and 
weeks, the small streams and sipage springs. Then the soil is not washed 
from the fields and carried away, leaving them less fruitful. 

Besides, when dry seasons come and the surface begins to suffer from 
drouth, then by capillary attraction the water rises from below and 
ascends to nourish the growing plants. The fact alone that the soil is 
ploughed and pulverized exerts in itself a very beneficial influence in pre- 
venting undue evapoiation as well as in catching and retaining the moisture 
that falls. 

The more moisture, the more vegetation ; the more vegetation, the 
better is the moisture retained and given off to evaporation to make more 
moisture, and so on in an endless circle. 



2(5 NEBRASKA. 

As the State is m(ti-e fully settled the amount of annual rainfall will 
doubtless continue to increase as it has done, and the rain belt will push,, 
farther and farther west. 

In ten years the annual rainfall has been known to increase a full eight 
inches in the best cultivated districts. The tendency of the cultivation of 
the soil is an increase of moisture. 

Even in seasons of exceptional drouth Nebraska suffers far" less than 
other soils, owing to the facts already alluded to ; namely, that the soil itself 
is deep and very light, so that it never bakes like clay soils ; then the sub- 
soils being very thick and of a light porous nature, take up and hold for 
the dry seasons unusual quantities of water. 

Such soil conditions are rarely met with, and are most favorably adapted 
to entirely resist drouth, should it come. 

Drouth in a region of thin clayey soils with but little subsoil, would 
work destruction. 



THE RELATION OF THE SOIL TO GOOD ROADS. 



The pecuHar excellence of the natural prairie roads, in winter or sum- 
mer, can never be understood by those in eastern or middle States, until 
they have actually lived in the State, and traveled for miles over these 
smooth and noiseless thoroughfares. Building a road in Nebraska consists 
in ploughing a furrow on each side of the road— to secure better drainage— 
and in rounding the road up in the middle. Built in this simple way the 
roads are good the year round, save in exceptional seasons. 

However, the usual method of road building is this— one team starts a 
trail which others follow, and the road is made ; and furthermore, it is an 
excellent road. You can travel over hundreds of miles of roads, made 
without tax or labor. 

The roads of Western Iowa and Nebraska are very similar in this par- 
ticular; they are hard, and so smooth that bicycles and carriages glide over 
them noiselessly; and at the same time they are so elastic that there is no 
need for shoes, and so horses go unshod. The clatter of hoofs and the 
rattle of carriage wheels is not heard as on the turnpikes and gravel roads ; 
besides they are freer from dust than other roads. 

It may seem an exaggerated claim to say that these roads can be built 
without tax or labor, that they are not muddy in winter nor dusty in 
summer, that they are at once hard and smooth, yet soft and elastic, and 
withal noiseless and restful to drive over. 



NEBRASKA. 27 

What remains to be desired in such roads? What more can be claimed 
for them? Such roads in the eastern and middle States would be bottom- 
less sloughs in spring, fall and winter, and dust heaps in summer. The 
peculiar conditions which render such roads possible in Nebraska and 
Iowa can scarcely be found elsewhere. It may pour whole water, and yet 
after the storm has passed the waters run off or dry up immediately, and 
you can walk over the rain-soaked ground without wet feet or muddy 
boots. 

The deep sandy loam drinks up the water, and one walks at once over 
dry ground. This could not be so in any region of thin soil abounding in 
clay. There it would be muddy for days after even passing showers, not 
to mention lasting storms. Not so in Nebraska. The storm lays the dust 
that may exist, and as the water is at once dried up, passing wagons do not 
sink in and cut gullies and ruts as in clayey regions. But instead they 
tend to smooth the inequalities of the road and pack it. 

The roads are hard, yet elastic and easy on the hoofs of our domesticated 
animals. This is strictly and literally true. The loess which affects the 
soil more or less, together with the humus or decayed vegetable matter 
and sand, smooth down like modeler's clay, and bind together in a lasting 
manner. This, however, affects the mere surface, the loam below it being 
unpacked and elastic. This loess is a most singular deposit; though so soft 
and plastic, it retains its position for years. 

In Omaha, streets have been cut through, leaving great prisms of loess 
standing, twenty to twenty-five feet high, with nearly vertical walls. The 
beating of the elenients for years on this seems to produce little or no wear 
and tear. 

Cellars dug in it need no walls, and yet they are fixed and durable. As 
to the lucky escape of Nebraska farmers from bottomless roads, in spring 
and autumn, these facts must be taken into account. Summer blends into 
autumn and autumn into winter, insensibly, and with very little rainfall to 
produce mud. The dry, smooth roads of autumn pass unchanged and 
insensibly into the frozen roads of midwinter. Winter is to be likened to 
a protracted autumn until late in January or February, and sometimes the 
frozen roads of winter change into the dry roads of spring wit,hout a break- 
ing up. However, if there are bad roads at all they are found in spring. 
For about the time of the annual spring freshets common to the Missouri 
and all its great feedei-s, it rains pretty steadily sometimes for four or five 
weeks, soaking the ground and filling it to saturation for future use. Even 
then, the roads not constantly traveled on anc^ cut up duriiig the storm, 
are in fine condition. 

Those alone are impassable which pass through swampy lands where 
water stands, a test that no road could stand. While there are local spots 
where a clayey or gumbo soil makes exception, yet it is believed that the 
above is a reasonably fair and accurate statement of the actual state of 
affairs throughout Nebraska, 



28 NEBRASKA. , 

If the roads dry off quickly, so do the fields, and farmers can resume 
their work almost with the very cessation of the storm. 

Soaking into the ground as the rains do prevents undue and excessive 
wash of roads and fields, which in less fortunate regions carries away the 
fertile soil, leaving the clay knobs and ridges, and bare hillsides, and 
gullied roads. This may account in part for the fact that soils, like a black 
mantle, extend alike over the hills and down the hollows. To those 
familiar with the conditions in eastern and middle States, it is always a 
source of surprise to find the hills and dales of Nebraska equally covered 
with soil, and to find the roads that wind over them black as powdered 
coal, whether on the knobs and ridges or in the hollows. 



THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE. 



Enough has been said in the foregoing pages to outline the features of 
the magnificent valley of the Platte river, and to convay some idea of the 
remarkable richness of its soil. While this fertile tract has been shown to 
possess, in a marked degree, every attraction a farmer could desire, there 
remains one point to be noted, and that is the peculiar adaptability of 
this valley for the cultivation of the sugar-beet. 

Mr. M. A. Lunn, Editor of the Beet Sugar Enterprise, Lincoln, Neb., has 
contributed a sketch of the rise and progress of the beet-sugar industry, 
which will be found highly interesting. 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 

"The declaration that the sugar-beet industry can be made a profitable 
and consequently permanent industry in the United States has had the 
effect to awaken a general interest upon this subject in all parts of the 
country and among all classes of people. 

''Contrary to the understanding of some, this is not a new industry in 
itself, as the manufacture of sugar from sugar-beets has been successfully 
carried on in several European countries for three-quarters of a century ; 
although the commercial value of the sugar-beet for sugar-making purposes 
was declared by A. S. Marggraff, a German chemist and member of the 
Berlin Academy of Science as early as 1747, who found the red beet yielded 
4i*o per cent and the white 61^0 P^r cent sugar. However, no economic 
method for extraction of the sugar from the beet was discovered until some 
fifty years later, when Carl Franz Achard, a former pupil of Marggraff, 
who had continued the line of research as inaugurated by his teacher, 



NEBRASKA. 29 

succeeded in extracting sugar from the beet root on comparatively a large 
scale. He announced his result in 1797, and published his methods of 
operation, and in the latter part of 1799 presented a sample of sugar to the 
Institute of France, stating that the cost of producing a good article of 
Muscovado should not exceed six cents per pound. His efforts remained 
unrewarded until 1805, when Baron de Koppy, who had confidence and 
interest in Achard's methods and their results, erected a factory. on his 
estate near Strehlen, Germany. At t|jis place actual work was begun. A 
second factory was erected on his estate by Achard, near Cunern, and 
schools for instruction in both agriculture and*manufacture were estab- 
lished, and soon several factories were erected in different parts of 
Germany. 

"Napoleon I. became favorably impresses! with the results of the experi- 
ments that were being prosecuted in France, and in 1808 issued his famous 
decfee of Berlin and Milan, excluding from the markets of France all 
material of English manufacture. This made sugar scarce and dear, 
making it necessary to undertake its manufacture from grapes and beets. 
Large sums of money were contributed by the government to encourage 
the industry. Ki 1811 the first factory was erected in France. Schools 
were established and maintained by the government for giving instruction 
as to the proper cultivation of the beets as well as the methods of extract- 
ing sugar from them. 

"The germs of this great industry were carried to Russia by one of 
Achard's pupils, and resulted in a factory being established in 1815, by 
General Blankenagel, in Toula. Russia exempted from taxation all lands 
upon which sugar factories were erected, and loaned other support to the 
industry. Unfortunately for the industry, the great European war bsoke 
out about that time, and very little progress was made until 1836, but from 
that time on the industry has made steady and substantial advancement 
throughout the principal countries of Europe ; but during the last twenty 
years the greatest improvements are noticeable. 

"In 1860-'61 the entire European crop did not exceed 387,000 tons, 
whereas for the campaign of 1890-'91 it amounted to 3,660,000 tons, of 
w^hich Germany alone contributed 1,325,000 tons; the total sugar crop of 
the world being 6,000,000 tons, of which 2,340,000 were made from cane. 
This great increase in the percentage of sugar in the beet is due to scien- 
tific and enlightened agriculture, by a careful 'breeding up' of the seed 
or 'mother beets,' selecting only such beets for that purpose as by analy- 
sis show a high per cent of sugar. Seed-growing in Europe is a special 
business by itself, and is conducted by men of known ability. 

"To-day the beet sugar industry is acknowledged to be the leading 
agricultural industry of ^urope, contributing largely to its revenue, in- 
creasing the value of its real estate, reducing interest, giving employment 
to thousands of skilled and unskilled employes, causing millions of dollars 
to be paid to th m for sugar that is sold to other countries. 



30 NEBUASKA. 

"With this brief revkjw of tlie early history of the sugar-beet industry in 
Europe, let us refer to the present status of the industry in the United 
States, where the natural conditions of climate and soil are found to be 
superior to those of Europe, and where the success of the industry is now 
assured, if those wlio engage in its prosecution will avoid the mistakes 
which have been made by others, and thus profit by their experiences, 
acquainting themselves with the necessary requirements for success, and 
deliberately work to that end. , ^ » 

"H. W. Wiley, chemjjgt of the United States Department of Agriculture, 
has very appropriately said : 'There will probably be found for many years 
to come in the United States more enthusiasm than knowledge connected 
with the sugar beets, and the result of* this will be, unless great care be 
taken, that many ventures wijl be made that will result in financial disas- 
ters which could have been avoided by a thorough comprehension of the 
fundamental principles of the industry. The great problem in this country 
is the agricultural one. The selection of suitable soil, the finding of proper 
climatic conditions, and instruction in the method of planting, cultivating 
and harvesting of beets, are all matters of vital importance. "Without a 
study of these subjects, and without a proper knowledge thereof, it will be 
a hopeless task to introduce successfully the beet sugar industry in this* 
country.' 

"The first experiment in the United States was in the year 1830 by two 
enterprising Philadelphians, who were said to have been wholly ignorant 
of the cultivation of the beet root or the extraction of the sugar, and fail- 
ure was the natural result. Eight years later it was again attempted at 
Northampton, Mass., resulting only in producing a small amount of sugar 
at a cost of thirteen cents per pound. It was again attempted at Chats- 
worth, III., in 1862, but, owing to ill-chosen location as regards soil and 
climate -the two principal conditions of successful culture— failed after a 
struggle of six years. The company then removed to Freeport, 111.,, 
remained one year, and again removed to Black Hawk, Wis. These trials 
all resulted in disaster, as the sections chosen were not provided with the 
requirements of successful work. *A later experiment at Fond du Lac, 
Wis., in 1872, v/as the first to give good results, where during two years 
considerable sugar was made. The proprietors of this company removed 
to Alvarado, California, and went to the wall, as did several other compa- 
nies. The Sacramento Valley Company was organized in 1869, and con- 
tinued until 1875. The State Agricultural Society reported 3,925,000 pounds 
of sugar manufactured during tlie four years prior to the year 1873. In 
other localities experiments have b^en made, notaBly at Camden, N. J. ; 
Portland, Me.; AVilmington, Del./and at Salt Lake City, Utah, attended 
with different degrees of failure. These experiments represent a large 
amount of money unnecessarily lost. At Salt Lake City, Utah, where a 
factory is now ahout ready for operation, the Jlormon Church expended 
$200,000 in tlioir effort to manufacture sugar between the years 1853 and 
1861. It was not until 1879, when the Standard-Sugar Manufacturing Com- 
pany was organized by E. IT. Dyer, at Alvarado, California, that any 



NEBRASKA. 81 

marked*degree of success in the manufacture of beet sugar was secured. 
Since then the company has been reorganized with additional capital, and 
is still prosecuting a successful business under the management of Mr. 
Dyer. 

'*The factory at Watsonville, California, owned by Claus Spreckels, has 
now been in successful operation for the past three years. The Oxnard 
Beet Sugar Factory at Grand Island worked its first crop in 1890. Its suc- 
cess is assured, notwithstanding its first season was very unfavorable for a 
crop of beets on account of extreme drouth. Three large factories have 
been erected for the crop of 1891, one at Norfolk, Neb., and one at Chino, 
California — these two are owned by the Oxnard Beet Sugar Company ; and 
one at Lehi, near Salt Lake City, Utah, being erected by E. H. Dyer & Co., 
and owned by the Mormon Church. All these factories, now in successful 
operation, were located after thorough investigation of soil, climate and 
other natural conditions, and are represented to meet in every respect the 
requirements now known to be necessary to the successful cultivation of 
the sugar-beet. 

''The conditions necessary for success are, suflicient capital, a knowledge 
of the business in its details, favorable location as to transportation, 
accessibility to limestone and fuel, pure water, and a full supply of beets. 

*'The analyses made of sugar-beets grown in many parts of the United 
States reveal the fact that the general average of the per cent of sugar in 
the beet is greater than in those grown in Europe. This must be credited to 
the natural conditions of soil and climate, and not to a scientific knowledge 
of cultivation and use of fertilizer, as is practiced there. 

"These general experiments are being encouraged to the extent of ascer- 
taining the cost of production as well as the number of tons that may be 
produced upon one acre. This is notably the case in many parts of the 
Western States, where the natural condition of the soil, as well as the 
gently rolling, even surface, will admit of the use of various implements 
that are now being manufactured for planting, cultivating and harvesting 
the beets. With the use of these implements the cost of production will 
be mxaterially reduced and the handling of the crop facilitated. 

*'In concluding this article, I will state, we now have every advantage for 
prosecuting successfully this industry in the United States over that of any 
European country. We have a home market. The consumption of sugar 
in the United States was, according to the last census, 55 pounds per capita 
for our' 64,000,000 inhabitants, or a total of 3,250,000,000 pounds or 
1,760,000 tons, while the United States manufactured less than 200,000 tons 
during the same period, not counting maple sugar. Our foreign purchases 
then were, in round numbers, 1,500,000 tons, or 3,000,000,000 pounds, 
which, if computed at five cents per pound, would represent $150,000,000 
paid by consumers in this country for foreign sugar. The land devoted to 
sugar-beet culture in Europe is valued at from |300 to |600 per acre, and 
the only advantage they can claim over the United "States is cheap labor. 
This is nearly or quite met by the non-use of fertilizers, which is annually 



82 NEBRASKA. 

required there. We have an abundance of labor, especially in oifr large 
towns and cities, and tens of thousands of acres of cheap land that can 
be made to produce more tons of richer beets at less expense for labor, and 
at the same time our laborers be well paid." 



BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY IN NEBRASKA. 

In discussing the aptitude of this favored State for the propagation of the 
sugar-beet, Mr. Lunn gives us the net results of experiments to date. The 
stories of the inception of great enterprises are always valuable, and this 
plain recital of first attempts will be read with interest. Mr. Lunn says : 

"No one thing connected with the history of Nebraska has attracted 
more general or universal interest throughout the United States than has 
the beet sugar industry, since the establishment, at Grand Island, in 
December, 1889, of the first beet sugar factory in this State. 

"With the admission of Nebraska, as a State, into the Union, the ex- 
perimental work was begun by Hon. Robt. W. Furnas, the first Governor 
of Nebraska, which has resulted in Nebraska now occupying the third 
place in the Union as a sugar-producing State. Governor Furnas secured, 
direct from Germany, the best varieties of sugar-beet seed, which was 
distributed throughout the State, with the request that it should be planted, 
in order to ascertain the adaptability of our soil and climate for the sugar- 
beet as a field'' crop. The result of this experiment was encouraging in 
every particular, especially to those who had had the opportunity of 
observing the cultivation of the sugar-beet in Europe, where it was grown 
for sugar making, and where this industry was declared established. 

"The experiments begun by Governor Furnas were prosecuted more or 
less vigorously in diffea-ent parts of the State, and particularly at Grand 
Island, the home of Hon. H. A. Koenig, whose boyhood home had been 
in the beet sugar sections of Germany. Not only Mere these experiments 
repeated year after year, for the purpose of learning the results that might 
be secured in different seasons, but the citizens of Grand Island had 
secured the assistance of a chemist who was able also to give valuable aid 
in other directions, that should, in the end, result in securing a beet sugar 
factory. 

"The results of this work at Grand Island attracted the attention of 
Henry T. Oxnard, in 1888, who was at that time investigating the 
adaptability of different sections of the United States, with a view of 
establishing a number of beet sugar factories. Although the results 
secured were very encouraging, showing that the beets were uniformly 
rich in sugar with a high co-efiicient of purity, with evidence that a good 
tonnage to the acre could be grown ; yet, notwithstanding all these facts, 
Mr. Oxnard, who has made the manufacture of sugar his life's study, 
regarded it but simple justice to himself and those associated with him, 
that the experiments of beet growing should be prosecuted still 



NEBRASKA. 33 

another year, upon different lands and under diiiferent circumstances and 
conditions, comprising a more extended area of country in that vicinity, in 
order to preclude the possibility of mistakes previously reported. In plats 
so grown, 315 separate analyses were made, showing the average percentage 
of sugar to be 16.3 per cent. Immediately upon the conclusion of this 
experimental work (which was also being prosecuted in other favorable 
locations in different States) negotiations were at once entered into on the 
part of the people of Grand Island, with Mr. Oxnard, for the location of a 
beet sugar factory at that place. These were consummated early in Decem- 
ber, 1889, and provided for a factory with a capacity of 300 tgns of beets 
per day and to be ready for operation for the crop of 1890. The work of 
excavation for the foundation was begun immediately, and a cablegram 
was sent by Mr. Oxnard for the shipment of machinery, which had 
previously been purchased with strong probabilities of its being used in 
California. AH the available help that could be used to advantage was 
employed, and by this means, the factory proper and engine house had 
reached such a stage of completion as to be ready for receiving the machin- 
ery which arrived the following April. This was rapidly put in place 
under the personal supervision of E. Seleich, a mechanical engineer of 
large experience in the erection of beet sugar factories. 

* 'Previous to this, Mr. Oxnard had imported 35 tons of beet see'd of the 
varieties which in past experiments had given best results. To the farmers 
contracting to grow beets for the factory, this was distributed at the uni- 
form price of ten cents per pound. Agricultural experts were also provided 
who had had experience in growing beets in Europe and who were to give 
information and instruction to the farmers regarding the preparation of 
the land and cultivation of the crop. 

"About 2,600 acres of beets were contracted for for the season of 1890. No 
preparation of the ground during the previous year had been made, which 
is now known to be essential in order to secure a good crop. Failure of 
seed to germinate arid grow in many cases was charged to the seed being 
poor, when in reality it was due to lack of sufficient moisture in the ground, 
which is now known to be the case, during ordinary seasons, where spring 
ploughed land is planted. 

"These unfortunate conditions, together with lack of experience on the 
part of the farmers, unaided by suitable implements for planting and cul- 
tivating, such as are now on the market, all contributed to general dis- 
couragement, and the results of the first year were anything but satisfactory 
to either the factory or farmer, although in some few cases where the work 
was thoroughly prosecuted a tonnage of fifteen tons to the acre was secured, 
thus showing what is possible under such circumstances. Notwithstanding 
the many discouragements of the year (1890), arrangements were con- 
summated for the erection of a second and a duplicate factory at Norfolk, 
and also one of the same capacity at Chino, Cal., by the Oxnard Beet 
Sugar Company. The season of 1891 was the direct opposite to that of 
1890, being one of extreme cold and backward spring, tlius delaying the 



84 NEBRASKA. 

preparation of the land and planting of the beets, which in some casea 
were replanted adding expense and rendering cultivation more diffi- 
cult by reason of the fact that the weeds had secured a good growth. 
The cultivating seasons continued wet and the frequent rains made it 
impossible to do any work for several days together, heretofore a tljing 
almost unknown in the State of Nebraska. The results secured in the fall, 
however, were a marked increase over those of the preceding year. 

"Judging from the reports, as well as the recollections of the oldest 
inhabitants, it would have been difficult to have selected any two years 
during the. life of this State when the seasons could have been more 
unfavorable for the introduction of this new agricultural industry. 

''By reason of these extreme unfavorable conditions, it was only possible 
to secure a good crop by suffering no neglect of cultivation to occur during 
the growing season. It is to be regretted, but an acknowledged fact, thai 
the general tendency of a majority of the farmers of this State is to undertake 
the cultivation of a larger area of ground than the force at their command 
will justify, and the force of this assertion is made doubly apparent when 
unfavorable seasons such as 1890-'91 are encountered. It is not surprising, 
therefore, that there exists great conflict in the various reports that have 
been made regarding the profits that can be derived to the farmer in the 
cultivation of the sugar-beet as a field crop for market, but in tliis connec- 
tion it is gratifying to note that not one case has been reported where the 
known requirements to secure a good crop were complied with, where any 
objection has been made to its further cultivation. 

"Under these conflicting conditions the spring of 1892 was begun. The 
acreage secured among the farmers in the vicinity of Grand Island and 
Norfolk, was about 1,500 acres each, and about 1,000 acres was cultivated 
by the Beet Sugar Company, additional. 

"The spring of 1892 was one of more than average rain, but on the whole, 
the cultivating season was fully up to the average, and the general results 
secured among the farmers have been, v/ith few exceptions, very satisfac- 
tory ; in a large majority of cases an increased acreage w^as voluntarily 
contracted for for the season of 1893, before final delivery of this season's 
crop. 

"From the first introduction of the sugar-beet into the State, which can 
be authentically traced to the year of its birth in 1867, general attention 
has been paid to it by the State University Experimental Station, and the 
results carefully noted. It must be borne in mind, however, that great 
and important changes have taken place in the general quality of tlie beet, 
which render its cultivation for sugar-making purposes beyond question 
Avhen all the conditions are properly understood— which can all be summed 
up in intelligent, seasonable and thorough cuitiva,tion. 

"In the year 18;G-'77, the average per cent of sugar in the beet, as 
reported by the statisticians of Geriiiauy, wjie only 8.19 per cent, but by 
study and scientific 'breeding u>) ' oi the seed or 'mother beet,' it is 



NEBRASKA. 35 

improved, until, to-day, tlie average is quoted at about 12.50 per cent. In 
Germany, and other sugar-producing countries, seed growing is a separate 
and distinct business by itself, and no expense is spared to improve the 
beet in form, as well as percentage. From the general results secured by 
the Nebraska State Experimental Station, that has industriously distributed 
beet seed among the farmers in all parts of this State, the average per cent 
is higher than that secured in any European country. This report is also 
confirmed by the results secured at the government station, established 
at Schuyler, Neb., under the directioij of Secretary J. M. Rusk, of the 
Department of Agriculture. The report of this station is furnished in 
Bulletin No. 33, which will be furnished free upon application to Secretary 
Rusk, Washington, D. C, and which should be in the hands of all who are 
interested in informing themselves upon this subject. 

"The experience in all European countries has been that this method 
was necessarj', as capital was timid when t4ie matter of obtaining a 
full supply of the rav/ material was questionable. But thanks to the 
effective work of the State and Government Experimental Stations, a 
large number of farmers have, by thorough cultivation, secured good 
and profitable crops, exceeding the net gains of any other crop. The 
average results secured from the State Experimental Station was a tonnage 
of 31.5 tons per acre, at a cost for seed and labor ranging from 129.14 to 
§32.75 per acre, or practically |1.00 per ton, and as the labor was all paid 
for at the rate of $1.50 per day, or fifteen cents per hopr, the cost is cer- 
tainly higher than would be the cost with the average farmer. 

"It is now clearly demonstrated that the natural conditions of soil and 
climate of this State are particularly adapted to the successful cultivation 
of tlie sugar-beet, and also that a great future is awaiting the farmers who 
engage in this new line of agriculture, as sugar must continue in daily 
demand in every home of this country, and as the greatest amwint of the 
world's supply is now furnished from beets, it is only necessary to com- 
pare existing conditions of the most successful European countries with 
those that exist in this State, and it is readily seen that the greatest advan- 
tages are now upon our side. The principal difference being the cheap 
foreign labor, which is altogether offset by our improved machinery, non- 
use of expensive fertilizers and the use of cheap lands ; whereas their 
lands, which are valued at from ?300 to $300 per acre, require annually fer-^ 
tilizers to the amount of about $20.00 per acre, and from the actual con- 
sumption in the United States, which has increased in the last fiscal year 
from 55 to 69 pounds per capita, making it necessary to buy nearly all we 
use from foreign countries, as our production is only about 200,000 tons per 
annum. It should be the ambition of every American citizen to make our 
own sugar, and thus keep within the United States the large amount that 
is nov/ sent to foreign countries for sugar, which now amounts to upwards 
of $200,000,000, the largest part representing labor and the products of 
labor. We have the lands, the labor and the market." 



VIEWS OP A YKTKRAN. 

Hon. S. M. Knox, of Princeton, III., one of the veterans in aiding in 
the development of western lands, gives a strong 0!)inion in favor of tiie 
Platte valley as a beet sugar country. Judge Knox says: 

"The beet sugar industry in Nebraska promises to be one of the most 
profitable industries in the State. The farmers are raising beets now for 
the Grand Island beet sugar factory. This factory has been in operation 
about three years. The farmers can raise on an average fifteen tons per 
acre with fairly good cultivation, and the factory pays $4 per ton for beets 
containing 12 to 14 per cent sugar; $5 per ton if containing 16 per cent 
sugar; ^5.50 if containing 17 per cent sugar; |6 if containing 18 per cent 
sugar; $6.50 if containing 19 per cent, and $7 per ton if containing 20 per 
cent sugar. The price realized for the products of an acre of sugar-beets 
of an average of tons per acre (say 13. per cent sugar) would be $60 ; con- 
taining 15 per cent sugar, |85 per acre, and beets containing 20 per cent 
of sugar would realize $105 per acre. The farm-ers can count safely on ten' 
tons per acre with ordinary cultivation, but under proper cultivation a 
good average would be about fifteen tons to the acre and the percentage of 
sugar ought not to run below 15 per cent. Two thousand acres were planted 
in 1892. The factory can use 350 tons of beets per day. This Grand IsUi.n<l 
factory made one and one half million pounds of sugar in 1891, and in 1892 
nearly two and one-half million pounds of sugar. 

"The phenomenal growth of this industry is shown by the results of 
thirteen years in Germany, whose production was: In 1876, 289,400 tons; 
in 1886, 985,600 tons; in 1889, 1,220,000 tons. Germany alone exported to 
the United States in 1889, 90,000 tons of sugar valued at $10,080,000; and in 
1890, 228,576 tons valued at $25,600,572. 

"The development of the sugar-beet industry in France is a marvel of 
success, to-wit: In 1826, 1,500 tons of sugar; in 1879, 501 factories produced 
430,396 tons of sugar of 2,200 pounds per ton, and in 1889, 700,000 tons. 

"The production of sugar from beets in foreign countries, during 1889, 
was: Austria, 730,000 tons ; Belgium, 195,000; France, 700,000 ; Germany, 
1,220,000; Holland, 60,000; Russia, 480,000 tons. Total, 3,445,000 tons; 
valued at $385,840,000. 

"The amount of sugar imported by the United States during the years 
1886 to 1890 inclusive, at the principal ports of entry, was, in 1886, 1,159,696 
tons; 1887, 1,101,664; 1888, 1,083,258; 1889, 1,007,801; 1890, 1,183,316 tons. 

"For the years 1889-'90 the number of pounds of sugar imported 
was 2,831,570,125, valued at $94,273,605, and of this 601,149,854 pounds was 
beet sugar and coming from the following countries: Austria-Hungary, 
60,621,711 pounds; Belgium, 13,329,390 pounds; France, 844,956 pounds. 

"The importations of beet sugar up to No. 13 Dutch standard from Ger- 
many during the past four years were as follows: 1885-'-86, 203,288,102 



NEBRASKA. 37 

pounds, valued at $5,6lv),5j3; 1888-'87, 220.414.030 poim-h. valued at 
14,914,322; i887-'S8, 51, oo;,'.) 17, $1,322,516; 1888-'80, 212,394,940, ^6,035,202; 
1889-'90, 512,009,173, valued at $10,031,431. 

"In 1891 the quantity of sugar imported by tho Uiiited States was 
3,483,477,222 pounds ; cost $105,728,218— about one and one-third cents a 
pound landed at the port of entry. This is up to June 30t;h, 1891. Same 
time there was imported by the United States 20,003,4(33 gallons of molasses, 
valued at $2,659,172. 

**In the United States the beet sugar industry is now fairly introduced 
into Nebraska. There are nnv two beet sugar factories established in that 
State, one at Grand Island in the famous Platte valley, the other one at 
Norfolk on the Elkhorn river, a tributary to the Platte. Both factories are 
located on the lines of the Union Pacific system. These factories have 
been in successful ope/ation siuce 1890. The soil of the Platte valley and 
its tributaries, with the climate of Nebraska, seem peculiarly adapted to 
produce beets containing a percentage of saccharine matter equal to, and 
in most of the beets larger than in the beets of Germany or France. The 
water in the Platte river, and the water obtained from wells is just the kind 
of water most suitable for use in making the beet sugar. The soil, climate 
and water being of the best, and the beets equal to the best sugar beets 
raised in Germany, and the great demand for sugar in this country being 
80 far beyond the supply, are strong reasons why the farmers of Nebraska 
ought to engage in the su^ar-beet culture. The facts are plain that all the 
sugar produced in the United States only supplies about one-tenth of the 
demand. 

'There have been attempts made in many of the Eastern States to raise 
the sugar-beets, and manufacture sugar from the beets, but without success. 
The results of the investigations regarding the sugar-beet culture in 
Nebraska, and the establishment of factories at Grand Island*and at Nor- 
folk, is due to the persistent efforts of the Hon. Henry A Koenig, of Grand 
Island. He commenced planting sugar-beet seeds in 1868, and these beets 
raised at Grand Island were found to contain 15 per cent sucrose. Mr. 
Koenig continued these experiments until he was elected State Treasurer 
in 1871. 'these experiments were continued by other parties with gratify- 
ing success at different places in the Platte valley. 

"In 1888 Mr. Koenig determined to make another effort to have a factory 
erected at Grand Island, and with this object in view engaged Prof. Wm. 
Huch of Shoemingen, Germany, to make thorough investigations as to the 
climate, soil, cultivation and analysis of the sugar-beets. The results of 
all the investigations, regarding the sugar-beet culture for 1888-'89, were 
very satisfying, and in many cases exceeding the greatest expectations; in 
fact, the effect has been to convince the most skeptical that Nebraska soil 
is peculiarly adapted to the successful cultivation of sugar-beets. 

"Through these successful investigations, instituted by Prof. Huch and 
the untiring energy of Mr. Koenig, the Messrs. Oxnard were induced to 
visit Nebraska ; arriving in Grand Island September 18, 1889, remaining 



38, NEBRASKA. 

some ten days, making thorough investigations as to climate, soil, location 
and analyzing beets, which were selected by themselves from the field. 
The result of 314 analyses made gave an average of 16.1 per cent of 
sucrose. 

"Negotiations were at once commenced by Mr. Henry T. Oxnard and 
the Grand Island Improvement Company, which resulted in a contract 
being signed December 6, 1889, by the Messrs. Oxnard to build a factoi-y 
at Grand Island with a capacity of 350 tons of beets per day. 

"There is a district of country in Germany 100 miles long and 20 miles 
wide that has 178 factories making sugar from the sugar-beets, and this 
Platte valley is over 400 miles long, and an average of 15 miles wide, and 
every acre of it equal to, if not better than, the best sugar-producing coun- 
try in Germany. 

"The Grand Island factory made this year about 2,500,000 pounds of 
sugar, and about the same number of pounds were made at Norfolk. To 
supply the demand for sugar in the United States requires about 3,150,- 
000,000 pounds, or about 1,500 factories of the capacity of the Grand Island 
industry. 

"It will require about 12,000,000 tons of sugar-beets to supply 1,500 
factories, and it will require about 800,000 acres of land to produce the 
beets for that number of factories, or 1,250 sections of land of 640 acres 
each. The quantity of sugar consumed in the United States at the present 
time can be produced in the Platte valley and its tributaries, and not 
diminish the regular crops now raised; and that part so used can feed and 
fatten more cattle and sheep than are fed and fattened at the present time 
in that portion of the State. Every farmer in the Platte valley ought to 
raise from 5 to 10 or 20 acres of beets annually, in addition to the crops 
now raised. Five acres of sugar-beets would yield the farmer about 15 
tons per acre, and the lowest price at the factory, $i person, will be quite 
remunerative, more so than any crop of wheat or corn ; and by commenc- 
ing in this small way, the farmer gradually becomes educated in this new 
industry, and thereby avoids the danger of comsnencing with more enthu- 
siasm than knowledge of the business. 

"The Messrs. Oxnard, in the year 1890, had three experts from Ger- 
many employed, at their own expense, to teach the farmers with whom 
they made contracts for beets to supply the factory, how to select the 
land, how to prepare it for the seed, how to thin and cultivate the beets 
and prepare them for the factory. In 1891, they employed four more 
experts, making seven in all, to instruct the farmers at Grand Island and 
Norfolk how to manage successfully this new industry; and these experts 
will continue to be employed, at the expense of the company, until the 
farmers understand how to raise beets successfully. At the experimental 
schools young men are now making the sugar-beet culture a specialty, so 
as to teach the farmers the art of raising beets. 

"The best assurance that can be given of the fact that Nebraska is the 
best country in the United States to raise the sugar-beets, is the fact that 



NEBRASKA. ^^ 

erperts, broaglu them to NcrLt arthe ! " ' ''"' '' *^"'""°^ '°^ *« 

■ 18.0, paid them wages and expenses totachThJ'?'''"''' u"*' '^^''^' ^'°- 

fullv raise the beet.r u r.Z , "^® farmers how to success- 

«.at Xehral': istt b^t rs^gHSy'lt^'^^' '^"-^ P-ticalT, 
best in the world. ^ -^ '"^ America and equal to the 

tl.e best and purest of water is obtafn^fv, T" • ^" ""'™''^^ ^^PP'? of 
bed of sand-the deptl Trying from 4 to 60^.:f "'■, '"""^ '"'° ''^'^ 
of the surface above the bed of the rfver ' """"''^'"^ '° "^« '^'''S*'' 

an '^^SZ^::::::^VrZ:'T::::^ a swiftcurrent, haWng 
bed of the stream becomes nearly drvh,;^ » iT '""^' °' ""^ ^'^'^'- «"^ 

below the surface the lu,X^ 7' t " ^' "''''* "■"««' ^ few inches 
underflow thatt'ner Xld ilTe Teatt""'"^" ""^^^^ ^^ ^ «-'--- 

on::;^p^^trpXrL?ni,:i^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

underflow. This ur 'erflow fn-n l "' '"'" ^" '"PP"«d f™'" the 

and is never affette^^^-'CdtZtr^ir-l^^r"''^ ^'"""^ ^' -'- 
^■ebraska. When th» s-ud nnml *'• ^*'V''»='^e« "e hke the wells in 

- well is never aff^;t:dttnert byT^ot^v t^e^ht" '^^ 

broken'^ :;i:::SL:;r„',:;r,:tT"- '^''^" "'^ -•'=--= -^ - 

retained; and when the surf^^tecotr L'^rv 'f °r'' ^'■"'"'' ''■^'' '^ 
moisture comes again to the surfaceTm tl' ^ ' '''^ attraction the 
times, when this great couutrv wfrnfTh ^r'^' ""P' S'""'^"*- ^'^ ^arlj- 
the geographies of that da^:^ the 'g eat^mf "" T' ""^ '"' ^"^''^ '" 
pie think that before the c ose o the ^o^h '^"^f «'^\De''ert,' little did peo- 

tbe front ranks of all the tl es of fhfpor "''^' ''''""'''=' "'°"''* ''^ '" 
cattle-growing State, and in tie Ld „f T^' =.^'''"' «S"«"'ta™l and 
rugar-producing State Tnd the Pl«tTe . ®'^''' '" "'^ ^"i"" '^^ a 

utility whatever-, prov;s to b» a r ver ,h ?' "' 7"' ^"'^P°^'^'' '« ''^ »' "° 
supply more water wertL/nvt '"" ''^'^ '''''' '" "-'« "^"^ '^''ture, 
underflow can be taken out in rm I 'T^u'" "'*' ^'"'^'l «'»'«^- Tb 
every point desired The1ichesare>°%°'^"'''^ "' "^^ "^■'^^- -<' ''^ 
-i.e; river, seven feet^:i, fthe ,",7 A S l^'^V^V''''* '^" '° "^^ 
watertoapointin*h'.un'.n,^qfif ; ."^ '^'"^'' ^^ ""'es loiig will carry 
end of the ditcl, "k rarrion'ru'ted b b"?.*'' \'^ °' ''"' "'"■ -^' "'« 
•ons, as nearly ^^ L leve" v Ih b.'' ^" > '"^ •'""' =" ^"'''''"^ P''^''^^ '" 
ngthegreatetfUnoIir-'^t^? !"!.'>'?■- ^ P°-b!e, thereby 



can von s 



getting thegreate...lp;;:.r''=:--~:«::^;S 



40 NEBRASKA. 

ing sufficient power to run many large factories. Every town, village and 
station on the line of the Union Pacific system in Nebraska can have one 
of these ditches and reservoirs furnished by this underflow. 

"A district of country that is so well adapted to the production of 
wheat, corn, oats, barley, flax, broom-corn, sugar, rye, hay, cattle, hogs 
and sheep, and the abundance and cheapness of water power for manu- 
factures, is sure to be rich and prosperous. 

"Men-less land wants men; and land-less men want land. In the 
East and in the large cities are thousands of idle men. In the great West 
are thousands of acres of idle lands. These idle men are suffering daily 
for the necessaries of life ; in many cases children are asking for bread. 
In the great West there is an abundance to eat, and a great demand for 
these idle hands, if they are willing hands. 

'•Question : 'How can we get these landless men and willing hands 
upon these unoccupied lands?' 

"The tendency of young men has been, for a number of years, to leave 
the country and go to towns and cities. The census of 1890 shows that 
46 per cent of the population of the United States live in towns and cities. 
That is not as it should be. Want and suffering are self-evident amongst 
the surplus. All this idle surplus population ought to be on land; in 
homes of their own. They ought to be producers — not wage workers. 

"To all homeless people seeking homes I say, go to Nebraska. Go to 
some point in the famous Platte valley, on the line of the Union Pacific 
system, and get a tract of land and make a home of your own, for yourself 
and family. The lands — the most fertile in the world — are waiting your 
coming. These lands cannot come to you, but you can go to the lands. 
Go and occupy them, the people of Nebraska will bid you welcome. You 
will find them kind neighbors, ready to lend you a helping hand, and who 
will aid you with their counsel and experience. -If you are industrious 
and prudent in the management of your affairs, you will in a few years be 
a free and independent man, and your family will rejoice with you that 
you cast your lot in the great State of Nebraska." 



GRAND ISLAND AND NORFOLK BEET SUGAR FACTORIES. 



A newspaper correspondent recently interviewed farmers in the neigh- 
borhood of Grand Island and Norfolk, regarding beet culture, and reports 
as follows, in February, 1893: 

THE GRAND ISLAND FACTORY. 

"I asked the farmer what he considered the most profitable crop he had 
raised during the last two years. His reply was unhesitating and 
emphatic, 'Beets I' 



NEBRASKA. 41 



GOOD MONEY IN BEETS. 

" 'Beets/ *' he said. * If you manage 'em right, there's more money in 
beets than any crop you can raise in these parts. But you have to reaUze 
the fact that the raising of beets ain't so much farming as gardening. You 
have to get right down and go at them. And some men are too big to do 
that. They think an American citizen ought to ride around over 200 or 
300 acres. As soon as they get out their naturaUzation papers they are 
too proud to get down and garden. They need encouraging. That's right. 
They ought to have the bounty.' And he rubbed his legs where the felt 
boot tops had got to smoking from the close proximity to the fire. 

"Now that is the farmer's point of view faithfully recorded. It shows, 
in fact, the whole situation ; even the undeniable reluctance of the 
Nebraska farmer to take up with this new crop. 

"M. Emile Brysselbout, the chemist and superintendent of the Grand 
Island sugar factory, said concerning this : 

*' 'It does not seem at all peculiar to any one who is acquainted with the 
introduction of tlie beet industry in France and Germany. Farmers are 
conservative the world over, and they are particularly slow to take up 
with the raising of a new crop. But it seems to me as if, by this time, the 
farmers ought to be convinced that there is more money for them in beets 
than in any other crop. Of course, every farmer can not raise sugar-beets. 
It is scientific farming. It appeals to the very best class of farmers. In 
fact, it gives an opportunity to farmers capable of doing scientific work, to 
show what they are made of.' 

/ 

OPPOSITION IS DISAPPEARING. • 

* 'There is a general feeling, not only among the people at the factory, 
but generally in and around Grand Island, that the prejudice against 
sugar-beet raising is gradually giving way. It has been due in no small 
extent to the constant opposition and misrepresentation of some of the 
local papers. 

"I pride myself on being able to see the point of view of almost every- 
body, but I am obliged to confess that after much honest endeavor the only 
argument against sugar-beet raising that I can find, is that it involves 
manual labor and the exercise of brains. I do not know which of these 
things it was that aroused the local papers to opposition. 

CONTRACTS INCREASING. 

''But that this conservatism is disappearing is evidenced by the rapidly 
increasing number of contracts that are being made with the company this 
year. Mr. Ferrar, the superintendent of the agricultural department of 
the factory, said : 



42 NEBRxVSKA. 

" 'Some of those who have been most opposed to us are coming in this 
year and making large contracts. I think such reluctance as has existed 
has been largely due to the natural timidity" of the farmers in taking up 
Avith a crop with which they were unacquainted. You see, the beet has to 
be treated with great tenderness. The sweetness has to be v/vorked into it, 
so to speak. First, you must be careful in the selection of your ground. 
It must be deep soil, with a soft sub-soil that will allow the, water to pass 
through. Unworked land will not do, as the weeds are apt to be too rank ; 
sandy soil will not do, because it will flow; freshly-manured ground makes 
too coarse a beet; wet ground will not do at all, because, while the beets 
need a good deal of moisture, they must not be allowed to stand in the 
water. 

NEEDS DELICATE CARE. 

"■ 'Deep plowing is most essential. You see, the ground must be soft 
and yielding. It's not safe to plant before the first week in April, and the 
last planting ought not to be later than the middle of May. If a man has 
a large field, there is some advantage in sowing different blocks of it at 
different times, because that allows the farmer more time to attend to them. 
When the plant has formed good leaves, which under the right conditions 
is about five or six weeks, then is the time for thinning out An<i much 
depends upon having this well done. Up to this time the beet has not 
been touched, except In the way of light but frequent cultivation. In the 
thinning out, the bunches are so separated that each beet left remaining 
in the ground stands quite by itself. If two beets are left together, they 
twist around one another and neither amounts to anything. They should 
be left from six to eight inches apart in the row, the rows being, you 
understand, far enough apart to allow a horse to pass between them. 
There is a 

LITTLE KNACK ABOUT THIS THINNING. 

" 'In order to do it so as not to loosen the beet that is left in the ground, 
and at the same time to get up the entire root of the one you are uproot- 
ing requires a peculiar twist of the wrist. But when it is once learned one 
does it instinctively. After this thinning has been thoroughly done the 
crop is practically assured. The sun, the rain and the wind do the rest. 
It takes about five months for the beet to mature. Then it is brought here 
and put in our sheds.' • 

**Mr. Ferrar spoke again of the great satisfaction he felt at the manner 
in which the farmers who raised beets last year were renev.dng their crops 
and the manner in which those who had not hitherto essayed beet raising 
were now making arrangements to do so this coming summer. 

"Apropos of this it may be well to read the following list, which repre- 
sents the results obtained by farmers in various parts of the State : 



N E P> R A S K A 



43 



SOME RESULTS, 

Con- 
tract. Name and Address, Acres. 

Gl Fred Roby, Grand Island ?, 

145 John F. Harrison, York 2 

100 Charles Riedel, Loup City 1 

115 Anthony Shacfcr, Red Cloud •^ 

86 W. B. Wilson, Hastings 3 

139 Charles Klein, Tobias 1% 

'222 August Heuman, Seward 1 

4 J. H. Stewart, Broken Bow 2 

106 George B. Rood, North Loup 5 

38 Phelps County S. B. Co., Holdrege 20 

6 F. Garbers, Chapman 2 

219 Jrtlrgaret Heubort,^Iampton 1 

202 Henry Lubs, Alda 2 

94. ...J. T. Mallelieu, Kearney 75 

134 Edward Amman, St. Paul 1 

185 L. L. Doane, Scotia 2 

179 J. F. Loghry, Geneva 1 

1 David Brandt, Abbott .' 3 

226 D. C. Kuus, McCool Junction V^ 

170 J. H. Wagner, Wolbach 2 



Tons. 

50.S 

II. 1 

41.5 

43.1 

18.5 

l:i.l 

18.7 

62.4 
193.4 

17.3 
9.2 

20.0 
781.8 

10.5 

20.8 

10.1 

32.2 

17.8 

21.7 



Tons 
per 
Acre. 
16.9 
17.5 
14.1 
14.8 
11.4 
10.6 
13.1 
9.3 
12.5 
9.7 
8.6 
9.2 
10.0 
10.5 
10.5 
10.4 
10.1 
10.7 
11.9 
10.8 



Amount, 

$ 221 39 

110 17 

63 62 

177 91 

172 40 

105 92 

52 36 

102 95 

219 76 

993 62 

96 57 

46 06 

91 65 

3,476 20 

42)25 

83 23 

40 76 

144 15 

• 71 28 

86 93 



Average 
Amount 
per Acre. 

«73 80 
70 08 
63 02 

59 30 
57 49 

60 52 
62 36 
51 47 
49 95 
49 68 
48 28 
46 06 

45 82 

46 35 

42 25 
41 61 
40 76 
48 05 

47 52 

43 46 



THE FACTORY IN WINTER. 

"Concerrfing the factory at Grand Island, it stands a mile or more from 
town, and wears at present, it is unnecessary to say, a look very different 
from that which it has during the 'campaign.' The long, neat building 
of red brick, the channels for floating the beets, the kiln, with its half 
melted bricks, the great pallid ' dumps ' of refuse from the limestone, the 
still-smouldering heaps of the burned slack, are there. But the place is 
silent. The pump house, through v/hich there passes 2,100,000 gallons of 
water daily, drawn from eighty great wells, is bolted now; and the pipes 
and sluices are empty. Within the machinery is, much of it, apart, and a 
few men spend tUeir time cleaning it and getting it ready for the coming 
year. Up in the laboratory there is always something to do, 

"One of the reasons that the expense of running the factory is greater 
than usual is that, while, thus far the factory has run only 100 days in a 
year, the company has to hire its chemists and managers by the year. If 
the supply of beets was such that the factory could run fifty days longer, it 
stands to reason that there would be much better results all around, 

IN OPERATION. 



"When once the fires are started and the mill is in operation, there is no 
let up either night or day. The men work in shifts. Last year about 250 
were employed continuously in the factory. And during the growing sea- 
son nearly 400 persons were employed in the beet fields, for the Oxnard 
company raised 1,000 acres of beets themselves last year. 



44 NEBRASKA. 

"Last year the Grand Island factory turned out 21,101 bags of sugar, 
which is equal to 2,110,100 pounds of the same delicious material. And 
still they have stored in forty great iron tanks 1,773,200 gallons of syrup, 
which will be made into sugar next year. Some idea of the labor and 
material that all this represents can be guessed at from the fact that sixty 
tons of coal and thirty tons of limestone are used daily during the cam- 
paign. The limestone, after its trial by fire in two kilns, is used as a 
clarifier. 

» 

YOUNG BLOOD IN BUSINESS. 

*'In one way the Oxnard company is a typical western company. That 
is to say, every one concerned with it is young. Mr. Oxnard himself is 
young and a bachelor, and he came into his present business by heredity, 
so to speak. His father was a sugar refiner somewhere in New York State. 
Mr. E. C. Howe, the manager of the Grand Island factory, is not yet thirty ; 
the superintendent, M, Emile Brysselbout, is barely that age, though he 
has already had much experience in the business in various parts of 
France. Mr. H. S. Ferrar, the superintendent of the agricultural depart- 
ment, is a gentleman with an Irish name, an American tongue, and what 
may be termed the ''country eye " — that is, the eye made for close observa- 
tion of things rural. All of these men have an amount of enthusiasm for 
their work, and a belief in it that would be surprising anywhere else than 
in America. But here some sort of microbe appears to diffuse itself 
through the mental system, causing an intense and indefatigable earnest- 
ness. It is this which has conquered the * Great American Desert,' and 
made it one of the rich places of the world. 

''Grand Island itself seems to have not a little of this same intensity. 
Everyone is working with a eye single to su(;cess. And this unity of 
motive, and diversity of action has produced the usual results. 

THE NORFOLK FACTORY. 

• 

"There is something intensely interesting to me in a town the age of 
Norfolk. If the ancient town, which has seen innumerable generations, 
which has helped make history, which has seen wars, been reddened by 
tragedies, been the site of national events and the birth-place of great men, 
has its charm, in almost no lesser degree has the new town in Nebraska 
in which the men are still living who can say: 'I have made it.' They 
regard it with tender eyes. Their affection magnifies everything within 
the town limits to them. Just as the prattle of a man's first-born seems to 
him to be the most astonishing eloquence to which he ever listened, so do 
the buildings, the improvements and the enterprises of a new town seem, 
to those who have brought about these achievements, to be extraordinary. 

"This sentiment is something that is exceedingly healthy. It gives self- 
respect, pride of the right sort, strength of character, firmness and con- 



N E B K A S iv A . 45 

lidence to the men and women who live in such a community. They 
acquire a sort of honest aristocracy, and rightly ijount themselves among 
the 'best people/ And they are such. They are creators. They are a 
force. They have produced. And their production has been nothing per- 
functory. It has been idealized. For it is not alone their dollars which 
have been invested. It is their brains, their sentiment, the utmost earnest- 
ness of their hearts. They have overcome difficulties. They have tri- 
umphed over their longing for an easier life. They have forced themseUes, 
in spite of their wrestle with material affairs to attend also to intellectual 
ones. They have not made mere shelters for their children and structures 
to accommodate their trade, but they have put libraries and drawing- 
rooms, and the spirit that goes with these things, into their homes, and 
the true energy and commercial courage that goes to the making of true 
merchants, into their stores. 

"Over at the east of Norfolk stands a mill— a flour and feed mill— owned 
by a pleasant man who bears the euphonious name of Birchard Bridge. 
Twenty years ago a mill stood on the same site. And that was the begin- 
ning of Norfolk. During all that time the little river has turned awheel 
there, and as it turned, around about have gone up buildings, homes, 
stores, churches, school-houses— until now the town has 3,000 inhabitants 
and a local pride and social grace that seem incredible when one considers 
the age of the town ; and which could not possibly have been acquired in 
so short a time anywhere else on the globe except here in the western 
part of our continent. 

A BEAUTIFUL SITE. 

"The prairie rolls a little around about Norfolk, and thus the tedious 
monotony that so often oppresses one in Nebraska is relieved. Trees 
have been planted by nearly every property owner. The streets are 
naturally good — better than the paving on many streets I wot of. There 
is a high school building of good design and -hygienic merit. There are 
several other schools and a demand for more. The business street has 
several new brick blocks of excellent appearance, and on the residence 
streets are many most attractive homes, some of which represent a large 
sum of money, and some of which do not. There is an excellent little 
daily and two weekly papers. And the town has a water supply, a sewer-" 
age system and electric lights. 

"Then there's the beet sugar factory. It stands about a mile from the 
town and presents the tidiest appearance imaginable. It is about eighteen 
months since it was opened, and it has run with increasing success and 
now has prospects for a still more successful year. Last summer the 
factory ran about sixty days and turned out 17,184 sacks of sugar, each 
sack containing 100 pounds. And there are now 12,000,000 pounds of 
syrup stored in tanks against next year's product. Fifty per cent more 
beets were worked the last year than the first one, and it is safe to say 
that the proportion of increase will be as great for the coming summer. 



46 



N E B R A S K A 



"The company raised 1,000 acres of beets themselves last summer and 
will increase their acreage to about 1,500 for the coming summer; and from 
800 to 1,000 work-people will find employment in the fields and factory, 
which will give an idea of the magnitude of this young industry. 

*'The personnel of the Norfolk factory is as follows: Heni-y F. Oxnard, 
president; James G. Oxnard, vice-president; James G. Hamilton, secre- 
tary; Henry S. Adams, manager; Fr. Weitzer, superintendent of agricul- 
ture; M. Duelle, director, and Charles G. Steele, M. Williamson, J. H. 
Brown, F. L. Steele and B. K. Keepe, heads of departments, business men 
and assistants. 

"As the Norfolk factory was hw'^t after the one at Grand Island, it has 
the benefits of any little improvements that might have been suggested by 
experience, but to the casual eye, the fa?,tories appear to be twins. The 
ground around Norfolk is adapted to beet raising to an extraordinary 
degree, and the farmers appear to be taking up with it Avith increasing 
enthusiasm. This year no orders are being solicited, yet applications for 
contracts are steadily coming in, and there is every prospect of a very 
brisk year. 

"The following shows something of the success of farmers who have had 
experience in beet raising during the last year. It represents a good aver- 
age, and is in no way exceptional : 

Tons per Araonnt 

Name and Address. Acres. Tons. Acre. Amount, per Acre. 

G. Brummond, Norfolk 3 56.3 18.7 $ 241.08 $80.36 

G. A. Lunde, Newman Grove 2 36.9 18.4 158.% 79.48 

Jens. Nelson, Humphrey 3 42.9 14.3 217.13 72.37 

P Kristenson, South Omaha 1 13.7 13.7 68.17 6§.17 

William Dommer, Norfolk 5 73.8 14.7 330.89 66.88 

H. Wachter, Norfolk 5 71.5 14.4 321.74 64 35 

F. Ilaase, Norfolk 10 146.0 14.6 637.73 63.77 

L. Wachter, Norfolk ^ 3 41.9 13.9 187.47 62.49 

Fred Hans, Stanton 3 41.8 13.6 169.00 56.33 

G. Scheer, Creighton 2 19.7 9.9 98.50 49.25 

Berger Bros. &Warnfeldt, -Norfolk 24 307.1 12.7 1,391.24 57.96 

W.R.Artman, West Point 25 280.7 11.2 1,224.04 48.96 

L. Bourne, Norfolk f. 20 259.2 12.9 1,111.43 55.57 



"The transformation of a dirt-covered beet into many thousand white 
and glistening granules of sugar is an interesting and remarkable process 
— it is a thing of such fine ingenuity, such nice adjustments and such accu- 
rate tests. The sugar turned out by the Nebraska sugar beet factories 
ranks Avith the best granulated sugar made. And it may be mentioned 
that the brown sugars made from the beet are not pleasant to the taste, 
being salty and heavy and having a sort of vegetable odor. ' 

"When the farmer drives up with his load of beets they are, of course, 
weighed before they are put in the storage sheds. When they are wanted 



NEBRASKA. 47 

they are dropped iiij^ a shallow- channel, in which there is running water, 
and are thus conveyed to the factory and lifted ingeniously on an elevating 
wheel and dropped into a washer, where rotary paddles clean them and 
hustle them to one end, where a bucket elevator displays something very 
much akin to brains in picking them up and carrying them to the very top 
of the building. 

TRANSFORMATION OF THE BEET. 

"Here an automatic weigher, which is used by the French government 
and v/hich serves all the purposes of a government inspector, since it 
refuses to open its mouth until it has received a certain amount in its 
gullet, then it makes registry of the fact and drops the beets out of the 
machine into a cutting machine, full of jagged knives, where the beets 
are converted into cossettes, or little slices, no bigger than an eighth of 
an inch thick. Down' drop the little cossettes, then, into the diifuser. 
Here hot water goes over them fourteen times. There are fourteen 
vats, by the way, and fourteen heaters. And the water runs from one to 
another, beginning at 190 degrees Fahrenheit and ending with water at 
its natural temperature as it comes out of the ground. It takes an hour 
and a half of this work to get this sweetness out of the beet — a literal case 
of sweetness long drawn out. There's one thing certain, there is very 
little saccharine substance left in the beet when the diffusers are through 
with it. 

NOTHING IS WASTED. 

"The pulp is not wasted, but is taken by a screw and put in presses 
which take the water out of it, and is then used for fodder. And this is 
counted very nutritive. • 

"The juice meanwhile is sent to the mixers, and here it receives what 
is called 'milk of lime.' This is used to clarify the juice, which at 
this period is exceedingly thin and light. Then the juice is sent to a 
heater, leaving, its precipitation of organic matter behind it, and is then 
put in the great carbonation tanks. In these the excess of lime is precip- 
itated by carbonic acid gas, and the foam is so great that it must 
occupy six times as much space as does the liquid itself. After having 
gone through the large carbonation tanks, a very small amount of lime 
is again inserted, and taken out in a series of small carbonation tanks. 
During all the process of carbonation, the juice is being heated by steam. 
This', in the words of Mr. Brysselbout, 'coagulates albuminous matter and 
perfects purification.' 

A WONDERFUL PROCESS. 

"Next the mixture of juice and lime mud goes through the filter presses 
— wonderful presses clamped together by hydraulic pressure, and with an 
interior astonishingly complex and extensive. After this the syrup loses 
its Ethiopian hue, and becomes the color of a fine light beer. After the 



48 NEBRASKA. 

mechanical filtration has taken place, and all the sediment and heavy 
coloring matter is left behind on the cloths and scre*ens of the presses, 
the juice is sent through a 'quadruple effect,' otherwise four boilers, 
which operate together, the exhaust steam of one going to another and a 
vacuum finally being created in the last one. Here the juice cooks until 
it is thick, and again it goes through the process of filtration. This is 
subjected to its last boiling in a vacuum pan and here the "filmass" is 
formed— that is to say a part of the syrup crystallizes into sugar, while a 
part of it remains thick syrup. All this is dropped into a mixer and kept 
constantly in motion. 



TAKING OFF THE SYRUP. 

"It is necessary, of course, to remove this syrup. So the filmass is taken 
in little wagons to a centrifugal machine, which keeps up a merry motion 
of 1,200 revolutions each minute, and which are lined inside with brass 
wire cloth and perforated brass sheets. The syrup is sent flying through 
these little holes. The sugar stays in the machines, where it is washed 
with steam and water. 

''Then clever screws and elevators whisk the sugar up to a granulator — 
which is a huge revolving cylinder with a steam-heated drum inside. At 
the end of this is a blower, which sends a draft through the cylinder to 
dry the sugar. At the other end is a screen which separates the different 
sized granules— in other words, the different grades of sugar. 

"The filmass meanwhile, like the souls in purgatory, is consigned to a 
place of waiting. And it must be boiled again before it can enter into the 
joy that awaits shining granulated sugar— that of being eaten. 

"Eighteen hours is all that it takes to make a beet into sugar — not much 
time considering the transformation." 

MINERAL RESOURCES. 



Nebraska is pre-eminently an agricultural State, and her wealth is in 
her soil rather than in her minerals. As the bed rocks are all sedimentary 
instead of primitive or eruptive, mineral deposits are few, as compared 
with her mountainous neighbors. 

GOLD. 



However, grains of gold occur in the sands of the Platte, carried there 
from gold-bearing regions farther west. 

The occurrence of gold is a fact of interest to the mineralogist rather 
than to the economist,- for though it is found, it is not in paying quantities. 



NEBRASKA. 49 

Iron pyrites, or "fool's gold," which is such an omnipresent mineral, 
is very commonly met with, and naturally enough, from its beautiful gold- 
like color, many think they have discovered ore of great value, and send 
packages of it to the State University for determination. If the dis- 
coverers would simply pound the " fool's gold " with a hammer, they would 
find that it is not malleable like gold, but crumbles. Or, if they would 
roast it on the top of a hot stove, sulphur would be driven off, and a bit of 
blackish iron left instead of gold. 

Glistening grains of mica having a metallic lustre, deceive many 
citizens of the State. They are not particles of silver, as a few strokes of 
the hammer will show. 

COPPER. 



Native copper is reported as occurring in Cherry county, in the form of 
flattened grains, but not in deposits of any economic importance. 



IRON. 



Iron occurs, particularly in the Dakota cretaceous, in the form of limo- 
nite, the yellow oxide of iron, but not in deposits of any economic impor- 
tance, inasmuch as it is but two or three inches thick. Besides, no natural 
fuel with which to work the iron is associated with it. 



OCHRE. 



However, iron, in the form of ochre, is abundant enough to produce 
that valuable, yet cheap, paint, in sufficient quantities to supply the world. 
It occurs in many counties south of the Platte, and from Plattsmouth 
down the Missouri, there are immense deposits of ochre of good quality. 
Some beds are of considerable extent and are four or five feet thick. 

This mineral paint occurs, also, along the Republican river. 

In color it varies from dull red to brown and from dark yellow to light 
yellow. 

At Indianola, in Red Willow county, the ochre deposit is very thick 
and extensive, and of a peculiarly fine quality. 

A considerable industry has sprung up here, and an ochre mill is turn- 
ing out large quantities of paint. The ochre is noticeably homogeneous 
and free from grit, so that only very simple, and but few operations are 
necessary to prepare this natural deposit for use as paint. 



50 NEBRASKA. 

LEAD AND 2INC. 

Lead, in the form of galenite (lead and sulphur), and zinc, in the form 
known as black jack or sphalerite (zinc and sulphur), are known to occur 
in the State, but so sparingly as to interest the mineralogist rather than the 
manufacturer. 

PHOSPHATE. 



The same is true of a newly discovered bed of phosphate of iron or 
natural Prussian blue, in Franklin county, which occurs as-bright blue and 
as yellow nodules, which school children ground up to make bright colored 
inks, thus leading to the discovery of the beds. 



MAGNESIA. 



An interesting deposit of magnesia, in the form of silicate of magnesia 
or meerschaum, has also been brought to light during the year. 



COAL. 

The most important mineral deposit in the State is the coal bed already 
discussed. While no coal is exported from the State as yet, the fact that 
citizens in the State where puch beds occur can avail themselves of cheap 
fuel, makes it a bed of interest economically, as well as geologically. The 
mines have been worked so far by farmers almost entirely, who get a fair 
grade of coal for digging it. 

The output to date amounts to about 1,500 tons annually, valued at 
three or four dollars per ton. 

PEAT. 

In connection with the coal beds, which once were extensive peat 
swamps themselves, come the peat beds, to which the State must turn 
sooner or later for fuel. There are peat bogs along almost all the rivers 
throughout the State, and the amount of fuel of good quality stored away 
and undeveloped, is of very great importance. 

As to quality, it is considered excellent; and .as to quantity, there can 
be no doubt that it is widely distributed. It is said that in some parts of 
the State there is scarcely a township without a peat bog or so. Hay den 



NEBRASKA. 51 

was one of the first writers to urge on the people the recognition of the 
extent and usefulness of these peat deposits. However, his words as yet 
have availed little, because of tlie excellent coal which is shipped at a 
reasonable price from Iowa, Mij-:soui'i and Colorado. In spite of this it is 
still to be wondered at that the n'atter has received so little serious atten- 
tion. As a matter of practical experience, peat is an economical and 
valuable fuel, and the expense incurred in getting it is small. 

To prepare it for use as fuel, it is cut into blocks of convenient size and 
dried. However, mills like these used in compressing slack into cakes are 
employed to harden peat into bricks. The results are very encouraging 
and promise valuable returns when people come to a realization of the 
value of such deposits. 

One peat swamp in I.ogan county is reported to be about six miles in 
length, of variable width and of a depth exceeding fifteen feet. Here, 
then, in one county alone bordering the Platte valley, is stored away for 
future consumption, combustible matter enough to supply the citizens of 
that region with cheap fuel for many years to come, when once it is under- 
stood and developed. 

In Seward county, on the Blue river, occur peat beds as good and 
almost as extensive. 

The chief tools in the development of peat bogs are the spade and the 
shovel. The blocks of peat, when cut, are piled away like wood in the shed. 
The process is as simple as cutting wood. Our peat deposits are entirely 
una:^)preciated and undeveloped. 



CLAYS. 



But in connection with coal and peat, clays are an almost necessary 
astociate, for noihing is much more impervious than a stratum of clay. 
So a depression lined with clay holds water and becomes a lake or peat 
bog. , 

The underlying and sometimes the overlying clays of coal seams are 
usually fire clays, useful in making bricks and tiles for fire-places, grates, 
stoves and furnaces, and for other uses where great heat must be with- 
stood. 

Fire clays are quite abundant and in widely separated regions in the 
State. 

Brick and tile clays of good quality are found everywhere, particularly 
along the southern and eastern parts, and, as the country develops and 
the demand for this product constantly increases, new clay beds must be 
added to those already known, until aiany flourishing industries are built 
up. These deposits are already very extensively worked. 



52 NEBRASKA. 

POTTERS' CLAY. 

Several beds of potters' clay along the Missouri river are worked, and 
one in Cass county, on the Platte, is quite extensive. 

MARL. 

Marls are clays so rich in lime and other minerals beneficial to crops 
that marl soils are counted very productive. They are often used as fer- 
tilizers where the soil is naturally poor. When full of fresh water shells 
they are known as shell marls. It is a superabundance of these marls that 
gives the soil of the State its reputation for fertility. 

The Tertiary formation, which occupies two-thirds of the State, is char- 
acterized by these deposits, and if we reckon in the loess also, then we 
have an almost universal deposit. Marl beds are very abundant in Western 
Nebraska, also along the Republican and its tributaries, varying in thick- 
ness from five feet to ten feet, and in color from green to yellow and gray. 
But it occurs not only in Southern Nebraska, but along the Niobrara as 
well — in short, pretty generally throughout the State— and exercises a very 
telling influence on the soil. 

SALT. 

It seems to have been a mooted question whether the numerous salt 
wells, creeks and marshes, especially of Lancaster county, were to be 
accounted gains or losses to the community, inasmuch as many acres are 
given over wholly to them. 

In the case of the salt marshes in Lincoln, some six hundred acres in 
one patch are considered waste land because of the innumerable saline 
springs which rise to feed Salt creek. 

However, a very practical test of its value is being made. 

If the busy people whose time or means will not suffer them to depart 
to health resorts in the heated season, continue to show their appreciation 
of the Lincoln Salt Lake as they have done, there can be no doubt of- the 
useful part these salt springs are to play in the community. A large 
artificial lake some two miles long, and about a mile wide, has been made, 
with a suitable sand beach for bathers. Boat houses and pavilions have 
been erected, pleasure boats, sail boats and a small steamer are at the ser- 
vice of the pleasure-seekers. 

If it is any criterion, then the thousands who availed themselves of the 
refreshing spot for the sake of change, recreation or sport, show undeni- 
ably that the salt springs and marshes are to prove blessings to the people 
of the region. So forcibly have the beneficial influences of this salt lake 
been borne in on the people, that a large and pretentious sanitarium has 
been built in Lincoln, to be supplied with salt water from an artesian well. 



NEBRASKA. 53 

Numerous salt wells are reported south of the Platte, and as far west as 
Hastings at least; brine being generally encountered in boring for fresh 
water. 

GYPSUM 

Gypsum, or lime sulphate, is found throughout the State in the form of 
clear crystals (selenite) so soft that they can be scratched with the finger 
nail. However, it is lime in the form of lime carbonate that is of high 
commercial importance to the State, for under this head comes the 



LIMESTONES. 

On these we depend for our building stones and for the lime with which 
to make our mortar, our side walls and ceilings. 

Some of the Nebraska limestones, especially certain outcrops in Otoe 
county, are sufficiently fine grained to have received the name Litho- 
graphic Limestone. However, it must not be inferred from the name 
that this is a stone like the fine Solenhofen limestone of Bavaria, used for 
lithographic purposes throughout the world. Notwithstanding its name, 
it is probably of no consequence as a stone for engraving purposes, but 
may be a valuable building stone. Limestones occur throughout the 
State, but in the central and western parts the bed rocks are covered so 
deeply with surface material or superficial deposits, as already described, 
that they are not known to exist, and are not used by the peof)le. 

Limestones are found particularly in Southeastern Nebraska, or the 
carboniferous corner of the State, and along the Missouri, the Platte, Blue 
and Republican rivers. 

Some of the limestones are compact and fine grained, others coarse and 
spongy. Some soft like chalk, others again so mixed with silicious matter 
as to be rather hard and flinty, others so highly fossiliferous that they 
look like petrified oyster beds. 

All these varieties have been put to some good use, either for architect- 
ural or foundation purposes. Nearly all the eastern limestones, from the 
Platte river down and as far west as the Blue at least, are marked by rice- 
grains (fusulina) or by the hollow places they once filled. This may be 
called rice limestone or fusulina limestone. They are valuable for building 
purposes, the fusulina shells or impressions doing them no harm. 

One quarry of such limestone at La Platte furnished the stone of which 
the post office and court house at Lincoln are built. 

These buildings are handsome and very substantial looking structures, 
and are admired largely because of the excellent effect produced by the 
fine light gray limestone of which they are built. 



54 NEBRASKA. 

Quarries near the SUte Fish Hatcheries, at South Bend, on the Platte, 
yield a stone that is counted even finer. Htoiie from this (jnarry Vias been 
used in the building of the State Capitol. 

Similar quarries are opened both on the south and north banks of the 
Platte. 



TIMBER. 



The amount of timber actually found in Nebraska— a State pronounced 
by strangers, a treeless prairie — is a gratiiyin'^ surprise. With such varia- 
tions of altitude as there are in the State, one must expect to find a cor- 
responding variation among forest trees. 

Some kinds of timber are common the State over, others are confined 
entirely to the lov/er altitudes or eastern parts, and others to the higher 
altitudes or Western Nebraska. 

The timber exhibit at the World's Fair enlightened many as to the 
size and extent of native trees in Nebraska. 

Black walnuts, five and one-half feet in diameter, have been cut. 
Poplars far larger, and elms and oaks are also known, and pines of great 
size are common. These are cut into timber for various uses, and besides, 
supply an immense amount of fuel. 

The yellow pine or bull pine, occurs in Northwestern Nebraska, as well 
as in the central portion of the State. . Red cedar grows throughout the 
State. White oak and post oak, yellow oak and low yellow oak, scarlet, 
scrub and biack oaks, are confined to the carboniferous or southeastern 
corner of the State, but burr oak covers the eastern half, from north to 
south, while red oak covers the eastern fourth of the State. Iron-wood is 
found along the Missouri and Niobrara. Butternuts are restricted to the 
southeastern counties, Vv'hile black walnuts cover the eastern third of the 
State, and many grow along the southern tier of counties. 

Hickory trees are represented by the shell-bark, big hickory nut, mocker- 
nut, pig-nut and bitter hickory. The hickories grow particularly to the 
east and south of the Platte. 

Willows are numerous and are represented by the black willow, almond 
willow, shining willow, beaked willow, prairie willow, dwarf willow, dia- 
mond willow and the sand-bar willow. The last named occurs throughout 
the State. 

Cottonwoods, which are the largest trees of the State, many being 
reported with diameters varying from five to six feet through. The Cot- 
tonwood is a valuable native tree, which grows with great rapidity, and 
deserves the attention of all who wish to improve their lands by planting 
trees. It grows the whole State over; so does the white elm. 



NEBRASKA. 55 

The white elm (also called water elm, swamp elm and rock elm), is 
destined here, as in the east, to become a very popular shade tree, and as 
it is adapted naturally to the State, its cultivation cannot be too zealously 
encouraged. 

Red ehns grow in the eastern fourth of the State. 

The hackberry, red mulberry and "sycamore " are also found. 

The silver maple or soft maple (not to be confounded with the red 
maple), grows in the eastern third of the State, but the ash-leafed maple 
or box elder, is universally distributed, and is planted very extensively for 
shade, and for " tree claims." 

Three varieties of native grapes occur; the summer, frost and early wild 
grape. Prickly and smooth gooseberries, wild, red, black and golden cur- 
rants are among the native small fruits. 

Wild plums grow everywhere. Among the native cherries are sand, 
choke, dwarf wild, and black cherries. With these may be enumerated 
wild crab apples, hav/thorne, service berries, and elders and pawpaws. 
The red bud, Kentucky coffee tree and honey locust grow in the south- 
eastern counties. 

Both the green ash and red ash flourish over the State. Besides these 
there are shrubs and climbing vines. 

Sixty-two trees and sixty-nine shrubs belong to the State. 

Along the northern part of the State some one hundred and twenty-one 
woody plants are known; along the southern part, one hundred and 
thirty-three. 

THE FAUNA OF NEBRASKA. 

Valuable game and fur-bearing mammals, as well as birds, live, or used 
to live, in the State which was once the " empire of the buffalo." This 
valuable animal, however, w^as so quickly and wantonly destroyed that 
there is not even a skeleton or a stuffed skin in the State museum, to repre- 
sent even the valuable herds that once pastured on her broad prairies. 
But the " buffalo," or correctly speaking, the American bison, is gone, savie 
a few in domestication. ' 

So, also, the elk, formerly so abundant. The prong-horned antelope is 
driven to a remote corner of the State and is on the verge of extermination. 
So it is with the Virginia deer, white-tailed deer, the mule deer, and the 
black-tailed deer. 

Bears have ,always occurred sparingly in the State, even when first 
settled. There are two raccoons, the common and the black-footed. 

Among the cats are the mountain lion, wild-cat and Canada lynx. 

There are opossums, moles, shrews, hares, rats, mice, musk-rats, 
beavers, wood-chucks, prairie dogs, gophers, striped squirrels, chipmunks 
and flying, squirrels, American t)adger, skunk, otter, wolverine, ferret, 
S^r^k, weasel, sable, swifts, foxes, coyotes, wolves and bats. 



66 NEBRASKA. 

Some eighty-five mammals are recorded for Nebraska, exclusive of the 
mastodon, primitive elephant and many fossil mammals found here. 

The fish hatcheries, at South Bend, are doing valuable work in stocking 
ponds and rivers with good fish. Of the shell-fish there are immense num- 
bers of clams or mussels, in all the streams and ponds. 

The number of birds recorded are some two hundred and fifty, among 
which are eagles, hawks, songsters and game birds. 

Ducks and geese are well represented, and sportsmen still find large 
numbers of these water fowls, especially along the Platte. While the wild 
pigeon and wild turkey are exterminated, yet grouse, prairie chicken and 
quail are very abundant. Plovers, snipe and rail are common and furnish 
excellent shooting for the sportsman. 

There are some ten or twelve turtles, five or six lizards, twenty-five 
snakes, a large number of frogs, toads and salamanders. 

Of fishes, many varieties are already known, although they have n«ver 
been properly studied. 

CLIMATE Al^D HEALTH. 

It is not by personal impressions, but by actual figures, that the climatic 
conditions of a region are decided. 

Accordingly certain tables are appended here which may throw some 
light on the climate of the State, and will make comparison of this with 
other climates possible. The following table gives the mean and average 
climatic conditions for the twelve months of the year : 

I • g § ^ i 

i • 2 -2 ^ & Q 

n - ^ ^ ^ ^ S Q S 

^H "Sfc: « u § ^£ I S 

^^ m^ m £ ro Q*^ 6 6 

'anuary 18.4 28.2 6.7 1.06 6.5 4.4 6.1 13.7 

..^bruary 23.9 25.1 6.1 .85 5.6 4.0 5.8 11.8 

March 35.7 21.5 0.7 1.36 6.9 5.0 7.0 12.4 

April 51.8 4.8 .... 2.70 .... 7.0 7.0 11.3 

May 61.3 1.2 .... 4.26 .... 9.0 7.3 11.2 

June 70.6 4.97 .... 8.7 4.7 11.6 

Jiily 75.7 4.54 .... 8.0 4.0 14.1 

August 73.4 3.39 .... 6.6 4.9 15.3 

September 64.7 2.39 .... 5.5 5.0 15.3 

October 52.2 5.6 .... 2.11 ... 4.9 7.0 15.2 

November 36.3 19.7 .... 0.93 2.7 2.7 5.6 15.3 

December 25.8 25.3 3.8 0.75 4.0 4.6 8.4 11.3 

The above table is made up of averages based on observations made 



NEBRASKA. 57 





i 




1 


2 

It 


3^ 


■% 


I 


2d 


1 

t 


1. 
5« 


1878. 


..51.4 


117.9 


18.2 


97 


— 8 


29.29 


16.0 . 


53.1 


50.8 


185.5 


1879. 


..49.4 


135.8 


22.2 


97 


-17 


28.74 


17.1 


61.7 


43.4 


174.9 


1880. 


..49.7 


140.4 


14.3 


97 


—26 


25.29 


14.9 


53.3 


52.2 


188.7 


1881. 


..49.3. 


140.6 


16.6 


100 


—32 


35.79 


43.5 


73.2 


69.5 


141.0 


1882. 


..56.0 


131.6 


8.0 


99 


—15 


27.13 


19.4 


66.8 


62.6 


158.5 


1883. 


..47.6 


131.8 


15.5 


99 


—28 


35.79 


21.5 


89.2 


75.5 


148.9 


1884. 


..47.8 


136.0 


29.5 


97 


—32 


29.50 


23.3 


80.0 


81.1 


140.3 


1885., 


..46.8 


142.9 


29.4 


98 


-27 


29.24 


20.3 


76.4 


70.6 


167.5 


1886., 


..48.0 


146.0 


25.7 


102 


—25 


28.32 


61.1 


87.4 


70.1 


166.4 


1887., 


..48.4 


137.8 


28.6 


103 


—30 


22.95 


26.4 


73.1 


79.6 


145.9 


1888., 


..48.3 


132.0 


32.1 


105 


—35 


27.55 


15.3 


77.8 


77.6 


140.6 


1889., 


..50.6 


112.2 


5.1 


111 


—27 


30.14 


13.3 


67.2 


98.5 


153.1 


1890., 


..50.7 


132.8 


13.7 


112 


-34 


21.81 


19.5 


59.8 


89.5 


168.0 


1891., 


..49.6 


126.2 


7.6 


110 


—38 


38.57 


35.9 


79.5 


99.5 


147.1 


Mean 49.2 


133.1 


19.0 






29.26 


25.4 


71.3 


72.9 


158.9 



HEALTHFULNESS OF NEBRASKA. 



The claim to longevity which the State has set up from the outset, may 
seem to emanate entirely from the undue enthusiasm of successful citizens. 
In sifting the evidence one must find, however, that these claims have 
their foundation on fact, and that they are reasonable and true, and are 
exaggerated but little, if at all. Nowhere in the State can be found cause 
for disease. The one fundamental idea of diseases in modern times is the 
germ theory. Yet we do not find these germs in dry, pure atmosphere 
and high altitudes. Ranchmen, cowboys and soldiers can answer this in 
part at least, by one important fact. 

Meat in Nebraska, even when exposed without protection to the 
summer heat tends to dry into a hard, black mass without decomposition. 
With the same treatment in an atmosphere less free from germs, the piece 
of meat would become a hotbed for the bacterium turmo and all the other 
bacteria of fermentation and putrefaction. 

In respect to purity, the air of the State vies with that of its next neigh- 
bor, Colorado. Malaria and pulmonary diseases are not known. There 
is no burning with fevers or chattering with chills or wasting away by 
consumption, for the very seat of such distressing maladies is entirely 
removed. 



68 NEBRASKA. 

There are no noxious exhalations from moulding or decaying matter, 
for in all climates where the air i? so free from humidity, the capacity for 
moisture is so great that evaporation goes on so rapidly that matter dries 
up without mould or decay. 

There are no stagnant marshes, swamps,^bogs and sloughs to give off 
the bad air and poisonous gases which plant the germ of agues and fevers 
in the blood. Neither do man and beast drink from stagnant pools. 
Instead, the marshes are dried up and the water is drawn-from deep wells 
after fiUering through many feet of fine sand and clay. 

The very seat of diseases is removed, and when men are stricken with 
fever, the cause can be traced directly to poor sanitary conditions of his 
premises, or to other purely local causes. 

Many who have contracted fatal pulmonary troubles or show hereditary 
tendencies to such diseases often flee for safety, when too late, to Nebraska, 
as to Colorado. 

Nebraska's claim to entire freedom from all tendencies to consumption 
and other pulmonary afflictions is often met by the rejoinder that it is too 
young a State for any of its native-born citizens to die ol such ailments. 
The truth is that there is no tendency here to such afflictions. 

There is no spot on earth free from diseases, yet here they are reduced 
to a minimum. 

The statement that the dry atmosphere and high altitude of the State, 
while so conducive to longevity and health in general, tend to nervous 
complaints, is unfounded, and remains to be proved. 

The air is in constant motion, renewing the supply, and ever mingling 
with tlie general current and dissipating any poisonous airs that may arise 
from any cause. 

The marvelous purity of the western air is particularly noticeable i... 
the eastern travelers, who find themselves entirely unable to judge 
distances. They are used to seeing a sort of haze or atmosphere over 
distant objects, and the more haze the greater the distance. The thick 
atmosphere becomes a standard of m.easure by which the eastern people 
size up distance. These same people coming into our entirely clear air, 
completely misjudge distance. Lofty castellated buttes six to ten miles 
distant seem right at hand, and many an eastern visitor, allured by the 
beauty of the scene, undertakes an early morning stroll to the top of these 
magnificent ruins. He generally returns from his h?Jf-mile stroll shortly 
after dinner, having breakfasted on fifteen or twenty miles of the purest 
air that comes to broaden any man's experience. 

Not yet accustomed to the clear air, sportsmen often misjudge the 
distance of game and very commonly shoot under it, falling far short of 
the mark. 



^^ E B K A S K A . 59 

Artibls who would linger among these enchanting ruins, find no haze 
(save uij^^asionally in Indian summer), or atmosphere, and their paintings 
are fi;it and unsatisfactory^ and filled with too much distant detail, since 
tlie eye can easily see objects twenty, thirty, and even forty miles 

distant. 



THE UNION PACIFIC SYSTEM. 

But a description of the gro\Yth and progress of tlie State is incomplete 
wirn.out mention of at least one railroad which has been largely instru- 
mental in the manvelous growth and development of. the State. 

The first road to enter Nebraska was the Union Pacific, which was char- 
tered in 1S62. Work was begun in Omaha the following year, and forty 
Liiles of road were completed by 1S65. 

Within five more years 705 miles of road were constructed and operated 
iu the State, and this increase continued, until now, in 1893, there are over 
nino thousand miles of Union Pacific lines, rail and water, in operation 
over the entire system. This is tabulated below, to show still better the 
part this road has taken in enabling the common v/ealth to double and 
qaa.lruple. as it has done. The mileage of the Nebraska Division of the 
Union Pacific is as follows: 

NEBRASKA DIVISION. 

Union Pacific Eailway — Miles. 

Council Bluffs to Cheyenne 520.2 

Omaha & Republican Valley Railway — 

Valley to Manhattan 190.0 

Valparaiso to Stromsburg 62.9 

Columbus to SiousCity 126.1 

Columbus to David City 18.6 

Oconee to Albion 33.8 

Genoa to Cedar Rapids 30.3 

Grand Island toOrd 61.8 

St. Paul to Loup City 39.0 

Boelus to Pleasanton 22.1 

U.MoN Pacific, Denver & Gulf Railway — 

Julesburg to LaSalle '. 150.9 

Total Nebraska Division : ,. 1,245.7 

Tlirou2hout the State there is already one miio of railroad to every 
fourteen square miles. 

The total mileage of railways in the S'.ate of Nebraska is 5,403 miles. 



60 NEBRASKA. 

THE UNION PACIFIC IN NEBRASKA. 

The important part played by the Union Pacific in the development of 
the State of Nebraska cannot be estimated by any array of figures. The 
construction of the road, its rise and triumphs, are a part of the history of 
the State, and the record of the prosperity of the road also witnesses the 
growth and increasing wealth of this grand young commonwealth. Since 
that memorable day in July, 1865, when the first rail was laid, the Union 
Pacific has been a strong friend and helper to the State. To-day, the 
Nebraska Division of the road covers 1,245 miles of track — that is, the main 
line, branches, and auxiliaries. Vast regions of fertile country have thus 
been opened up to settlers, and great areas of land brought by rail into 
close communion with the metropolitan centers and markets. Thriving 
cities, villages, towns, and hamlets, have sprung up in every section 
traversed by the line ; the State in twenty-three years has grown from 
122,000 to over one million and a quarter inhabitants, and with a hundred- 
fold increase in all the many-sided phases of commercial, material, and intel- 
lectual prosperity. There are but few^ examples of surprising growth equal 
to Nebraska. The population in 1855 was 4,494 ; in 1860, 28,841 ; in 1870, 
122,993 ; in 1875, 257,280 ; in 1880, 452,402 ; in 1885, 740,645, and in 1890, 
the United States census gave 1,056,793. The crop yield of 1884 was of 
enormous magnitude: corn, 160,000,000 bushels; wheat, 48,000,000; oats, 
31,000,000; barley, 18,000,000; rye, 20,000,000, and in succeeding years the 
crops have averaged the same generous proportions. Since the first 
settlement in 1854, there have been planted with forest trees in Nebraska, 
248,000 acres, or over six hundred million trees, all of which are in a pros- 
perous condition. The assessed valuation of the State is over $200,000,000 ; 
there are 120,000 farms under cultivation, and 100,000 owners; and there 
are 600,000 acres of improved land in Nebraska. The beginning of this 
prosperity, this wonderful growth and progress, dates from the inception 
of the Union Pacific Railway. 

The history of the Union Pacific Road in full would require a volume 
for the story, and in the brief space at our command we can only outline 
a few of the salient features of this great system. Everyone knows some- 
thing of its early history, how its construction was demonstrated to be a 
necessity as a war measure ; the great achievement of the engineers who 
had it in charge, and the wonderful story of the patient heroic effort which 
finally surmounted all obstacles and triumphed over all obstructions. 

For the building of a great railway develops incidents as startling and 
romantic as can be found in the recorded pages of history. The growth of 
the United States west of the Alleghanies, during the past fifty years, is 
due not so much to free institutions or climate, or the fertility of the soil, 
as to railways. If the institutions and climate and soil had not been favor- 
able to the development of commonwealths, railways would not have been 
constructed; but if railways had not been invented, the freedom and 



NEBRASI^A. 61 

natural advantages of oar Western States would have beckoned to human 
immigration and iijdustry in vain. Civilization would have crept slowly 
on in a toilsome march over the immense spaces that lie between the 
Appalachian ranges and the Pacific Ocean; and what we now style the 
Great West would be, except in the Valley of the Mississippi, an unknown 
and unproductive wilderness. 

Like many other great truths, this is so w^ell known to the older portions 
of our commonwealth that they have forgotten it; and the younger por- 
tions do not comprehend or appreciate it. Men are so constituted that 
they use existing advantages as if they had always existed and were 
matters of course. The world went without friction matches during 
uncounted thousands of years, but people light fires to-day without a 
thought as to the marvelous chemistry of the little instrument that is of 
such inestimable value and yet remained so long unknown. The youngster 
of to-day steps into a luxurious coach at New York, Philadelphia, or 
Chicago, eats, sleeps, surveys romantic scenery from the window, during a 
few days, and alights in Portland or San Francisco without any just appre- 
ciation of the fact tliat a few decades since it would have required weeks of 
toilsome travel to go over the same ground, during which he would have 
run the risks of starvation, of being lost in the wilderness, plundered by 
robbers, or killed by savages. But increased facilities of travel are among 
the smaller benefits conferred by the railway. The most beneficent func- 
tion of the railway is that of a carrier of freight. What would it cost for a 
man to carry a ton of wheat one mile? What would it cost for a hoj-se to 
do the same? The railway does it at a cost of less than a cent. This brings 
Nebraska, Colorado, Dakota and Minnesota into direct relation with 
hungry and opulent Liverpool, and makes subsistence easier and cheaper 
throughout the civilized world. The world should therefore thank the rail- 
way for the opportunity to buy wheat; but none the less should the West 
thank the railway for the opportunity to sell wheat. 

No fact among all the great politico-economical facts that have illus- 
trated the world's history since history began to be written is so full of 
human interest or deals with such masses of mankind as the growth of the 
interior United States since the railway opened to the seaboard these 
immense solitudes. Within fifty years over thirty millions of people h^ve 
been transplanted to or produced upon vast regions of hitherto uninhabited 
and comparatively unknown territory, where they are now living in comfort 
and afl[iuence and enjoying a degree of civilization second to none in the 
world, and greatly superior to any that is known in Europe outside of the 
capitals. This could not have happened had it not been for the railway ; 
and as a helper in developing this great area, the Union Pacific has been a 
very potent factor. 



62 



NEBRASKA 



TABULATED STATISTICS. 



Showing the Growth of Towns and Cities 
Agricultural Products of the State. • 



AND the More Important 



Towns and Cities. 



Counties. 



1890. 



Omaha Douglas 140,452 

Liiu'ohi Lancaster 55,154 

Beatrice Gage 13,836 

Hastings Adams 13,584 

Nebraska City Otoe 11,494 



Plattsmouth Cass 

Kearney Buffalo... 

South Omaha Douglas.. 

Grand Island Hall 

Fremont Dodge 

York York 

Columbus Platte 

North Platte Lincoln... 

Norfolk Madison. 

Fairbury Jefferson . 

Holdrege Phelps.... 



8,392 
8,074 
8,062 
7,536 
6,747 
3,405 
3,134 
3,035 
3,038 
2,630 
2,601 



is,so. 

30,518- 
13,003 
2,447 
2,817 
4,183. 
4,175 
1,782 



Number 

of 
Increase. 

109,934 

42,151 

11,389 

10,767 

7,311 

4,217 

6,292 



Percent 

of 
Increase. 

360.23 

324.16 

465.43 

382.22 

174.78 

101.01 

353.09 



2,963 


4,573 


154.34 


3,013 


3,731 


123.93 


1,259 


2,146 


170.45 


2,113 


1,003 


47.07 


363 


2,692 


741.60 


547 


2,491 


455.39 


1,251 


1,379 
2.601 


110.23 



Crops and Agricultural Products 1891. 



Number of acres cuUivated. 



State. 


Wheat. 


Corn. 


Oats. 


Barley. 


Meadow. 


Flax. 


Rye. 


Millet. 


Broom 
Corn. 


Hemp. 


1891 


1,223,787 
1,020,821 


4,538,009 
4,317,682 


1,420,907 
1,603,189 


147,942 
174,739 


883,451 
927,725 


238,198 110,741 

613,827 148,035 

1 ■ 


54,746 


20,170 


1,113 


1890 










Increase .. 


196,960 


220,322 





















Number of 


Real Estate — Lands. 


State. 


Fruit 
Trees. 


Forest 
Trees. 


Grape 
Vines. 


Improved. 


Unimproved. 




Acres. 


Value. Av. 


Acres. | Value. | Av. 


1891 

1890 


4,246,715 712,091,445 
5,455,083 180,270,430 


1,188,931 
1,803,932 


12,056,219 
11,719,359 


$47,026,378 
45,0(»,415 


$3 82 
3 89 


14,266,5-10 
14,228,821 


$30,040,157 '^2 09 
30,347,40CY 2 13 




Increase 




n;;c;,f;oo 


fpl, 422,963 




♦ 













NEBRASKA 



63 



LIVE STOCK. 





Horses. 


Mules and Asses. 
-/ 


Cattle. 


State. 


No. 


Value. 


Av. 


No. 


Value., 


Av. 


NO. 


Value. . 


Av. 


1891 


C0D,036 


$8,294,585 
9,145,450 


S13 77 
15 63 


40,447i S711.594 


Uo 01 ' 1,699,854 Sfi 379.?.;\S; S3 73 


1890 


585,089 


47,099 


828,584 


17 50 1,677,063 


7,041,292 


4 19 


Increase- 


23,917 












22,791 









ST^rre. 


Sheep. 


Hogs. 


Assessed Value 

of 

Assessed Property. 




No. 


Value. 


Av. No. 


Value. 


Av. 


1891 


162,641 
178,586 


5120,634 «0 66 
100,870 .^fi 


1,633,830 
1,805,897 


1 
$1, 168,981; SO 71 

1,821 539 1 no 


$183,184,030 27 


1890 










• 





APPLES SHIPPED 1891. 

County. Bushels. 

Richardson 226,998 

Nemaha 560,100 

Otoe .,. : .586,240 

Cass '. 330,4^0 

Washington 19,525 

Saline 18,700 

Saunders 3,000 

Cnming 2,500 

Johnson 18,664 

Dodge 3,021 

Pawnee 6,400 

Environed by health and- founded on stores of wealth, the young 
empire has added over six hundred thousand citizens to her common- 
wealth in ten years. That is an increase of one hundred and thirty four 
per cent. 

The next decade must show greater growth and mightier achievements 
than the past, for westward the course of progress takes its way, and more 
than ever must the Great East look up to and depend upon the Great West. 



64 NEBRASKA. 

PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

THE SYSTEM. 

The following is an outline of the public school system in this State: 

ESTABLISHMENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Free instruction is provided in the common schools oi this State for all 
persons between the ages of five and twenty -one years. 

Every organized county is divided into school districts, and each incor- 
porated city of more than fifteen hundred inhabitants constitutes one 
school district. 

MINIMTM LEN(iTII OF SCHOOL YEAR. 

The minimum length of the school year is three months. Unless 
otherwise specified, twenty days constitute one school month. 

PRESCRIBED STUDIES. 

In all schools supported by i)ublic money, or under State control, 
instruction must be given in Physiology and Hygiene, with s})ecial reference 
to the effects of alcoholic drinks and other stimulants and narcotics upon 
the human system. 

STATE SUPERVISION. 

The supervision of the schools of the State is vested in a State Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, elected biennially by the pecjiie. 

EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. 

For the purpose of training and instructing teachers, a State Normal 
School is established: and Normal Institutes, organized by the State 
Superintendent, and County Institutes, organized by tlie County Superin- 
tendents, are held. 

HIGHER EDUCATION. 

High Schools may be established in any district having more than one 
hundred and fifty children of school age. 

The State University is recognized by the State constitution, and 
provision is made for the management and general government of the 
same. 



NEBRASKA. 65 



COUNTY SUPERVISION. 

In each organized county there is a County Superintendent, elected by 
the people for two years, who has general supervision of all county schools 
with the usual power to examine and license teachers. 

TEXT BOOKS. 

Tlie district boards prescribe the course of study and text books for use 
in the schools ; and are required to purchase and furnish, free of cost to the 
pupils, the text books in use. 

LOCAL SUPERVISION. 

Each district has a school board of three members, elected for three 
years ; but districts containing more than one hundred and fifty children 
of school age may elect a district board of six Trustees, to hold office for 
three years each; two being elected annually. 

Women may vote at district school elections. 

TEACHERS. 

Teachers are employed by the school Trustees or by the Director of the 
district school board. 

No person is allowed to teach unless he is of good moral character and 
has a certificate from the County Superintendent or other person authorized 
to grant teachers' certificates, or has a diploma from the State Normal 
School, or from the State Normal School of another State, approved by the 
State Superintendent. 

There are three grades of certificates granted by the County Superin- 
tendent. 

Professional State certificates are granted upon examination by the 
State Superintendent, or by a committee appointed by him. 

Graduates of colleges and universities of good standing who have 
received a first-grade certificate and have successfully taught in any high- 
school in the State three years, are entitled to a professional State 
certificate. 

LOCAL TAXATION. 

The voters of each school district determine at the annual meeting the 
tax to be levied for all school purposes, which shall not exceed twenty-five 
mills on the dollar in any one year. Ten mills of this may be used for the 
building, purchase or lease of the school house. 



66 N E B R A S K A 



SCHOOLS IX CITIEo. 

In incorporated cities of more than 1,500 inhabitants, public schools 
are under tiie direction of boards of education, of six, nine or fifteen 
members, according to the population ; elected on the' general ticket for a 
term of three years; and one-third liable to change. The board elects 
annually a Superintendent of l*ublic Instruction. 

Boards of education have entire control of the schools in cities. 



THE ENDOWMENT. 

The public schools of this State are supported: — 

First : From a local tax voted by the district voters at the annual district 
meeting and levied upon the property of the school district. 

Second: From the general State tax on the grand assessment roll of 
the State. 

Third: From the interest of the permanent school fund. 

Fourth: From the lease of school lands. 

Fifth: From the interest of unpaid principal of school lands sold. 

Sixth: From license from the sale of liquors, and from certain fines. 

The land grants made by the general government to the State, form the 
basis of the fund for tlie public schools, the State University and the IS^or- 
mal School. The total amount of land so granted amounts to 2,880,870 
acres, divided as follows: To the common school fund, 2,733,500 acres ; to 
the University fund, 45,426 acres; to the Agricultural College fund,. 89, 140 
acres; to the Normal School fund, 12,804 acres. 

The amount of the permanent school fund at the close of 1892, which is 
invested in United States bonds, etc., is the sum of $2,525,872.35, with a 
further sum of cash in the treasury of $490,398.39, making a grand total of 
13,016,270.74. 

There are at present 1,462,707.97 acres of school land under lease, pro- 
ducing an annual rental oi $90,716.08, which, together with the annual 
interest on sale contracts of 1239,170.11, and added interest on delinquents 
of $5,542.37, makes a total of |>335,428.50 to be annually apportioned among 
the school districts of the State, in addition to the interest on the perma- 
nent school fund invested. 



i 



^ 



NEBRASKA. 67 

SOME interp:.stixg statistics. 

The following statistics concerning the public schools of the State will 
be of interest : 

Between the ages of live and twenty-one: — 

Males 176,326 

Females 167^03 

Total 343,629 

Attended school during the year: — 

Males 130,083 

Females....* ...123,826 

Total 253,909 

Between eight aiid fourteen years 159,7^2 

Attended school between eight and fourteen years 138,892 

Enrollment under five years 872 

Enrollment over twerwty-one years 379 

Enrollment between five and twentj^-one years 252,658 

Number of school houses : — 

Stone 39 

Brick 320 

Frame 5,759 

Log 188 

Total , 6,306 

Number of graded schools 316 

Number of districts having six months school or more '. 4,731 

Number of districts having four months school or more, but less 

than six months 660 

Number of districts having three months school 745 

Number of districts having no school 286 

Average days school in all districts 135 

Number of school houses well furnished with patent desks 5,161 

Number of school houses built this year 205 

Number of private schools 182 

Number of districts oy>'ning text-books 4,698 

Number of teachers actually necessary for county schools 7,877 

Number of teachers enrolled in County Institutes 5,716 

Total enrollment at Institutes 7,381 

Total cost of Institutes, for all purposes $17,577.86 

Addresses and lectures before Institutes 297 

Teachers engaged in reading circle work 1,644 



68 NEBRASKA. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 

{Located at Lincoln) 

Is just as much a part of the public school system of the State as any 
high school in any community is a part of its system of public education. 
It is as though one had completed his work in the graded school and high 
school, having passed through the first, second, third, fourth and other 
grades, should look about him to see where he could find the twelfth, 
thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth grades ; and should be told that they 
are in Lincoln, and are called the State University. With every step in 
education it becomes more and more important to provide more liberally 
for instruction, apparatus, and the general equipment which has been 
found helpful in advancing sound thought and satisfactory investigation. 
Higher education is necessarily more expensive than that which is lower 
in form. This is why there are few graded schools compared with the 
rural or district schools ; why there are fewer high schools compared with 
graded schools ; and why there is but one University. 

The University of Nebraska has for its sources of revenue: First, The 
aid received from the United States. This comes by a grant of seventy-two 
sections of land for the support of the State University, by a grant of 
ninety thousand acres of land for the Industrial College for the benefit of 
agriculture and the mechanical arts, and by a special act creating the 
so-called Morril Fund, which makes an annual appropriation for instrucr 
tion in certain branches. Second, A fund is derived from a general tax of 
three-eighths of a mill upon each dollar of valuation on the assessment 
roll of the State. These resources enable the University to offer its 
privileges without charge, and this is why it is able to print in every 
circular and catalogue the words 

TUITION IS FREE. 

The University consists at present of three under-graduate departments 
or colleges, as follows : 

The Academic College, including the general literary work. 

The Industrial College, including the work in agriculture. 

The College of Law, admitting to practice at the bar. 

There are in operation in connection with these colleges. Preparatory 
Courses in which instruction is provided for students denied this oppor- 
tunity in the schools of their own neighborhood. 



NEBRASKA. 69 

A School of Graduate Instruction, not yet fully organized, is open to 
graduates of these and other colleges. 

There is also a School of Fine Art and Music; in which, pending the 
opening of the College of the Fine Arts, instruction is given in Drawing, 
Painting, Modeling and the History of Art, and in Instrumental and 
Vocal Music. 

The principal buildings and apphances of the University are situated 
near the business center of Lincoln; occupying four entire blocks of 
ground within one enclosure. 

University Hall contains the Chancellor's office, the office of the Treas- 
urer and Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, the several Libraries 
and Reading Rooms, the Chapel, Society Halls, and twenty Lecture Rooms. 

Nebraska Hall contains the General Museum and rooms for Agriculture, 
Botany, Entomology, Geology, Horticulture, Physics and Zoology. 

The Chemical Building is devoted exclusively to Chemistry, and con- 
tains the several laboratories and offices. 

Grant Memorial Hall is occupied by the departments of ^Military Science 
and Physical Training. 

The Boiler House contains seven steam boilers which supply heat to all 
the buildings on the campus, as well as steam power for the engines and 
dynamos of the electrical plant. 

The Electncal Laboratory contains the engines and dynamos of four 
distinct and complete electric systems, and other electrical apparatus. 

A large Green House is filled with a choice and valuable collection of 
plants for illustrative and experimental purposes. 

A Library Building, to cost $100,000, is rapidly nearing completion. 

The Experiment Station Farm includes three hundred and twenty acres 
of rolling upland in a goo<l state of cultivation and with valuable improve- 
ments. It is two miles east of the University campus. 

The collections of books accessible to the students are the General 
Library, the Department Libraries, the State Library, the City Library 
and the Library of the State Historical Society. These contain in the 
aggregate about sixty thousand volumes. 

The Museums of the L^'niversity contain material illustrative of Natural 
History, Agriculture and other departments of study. All these collections 
are already of considerable size, while some are of unusual value. They 
are so arranged as to render them accessible to students and visitors. As 
these Museums afford a safe repository for objects of value, it is hoped that 
frequent gifts will be made to the several collections. 

In the Laboratories of the University full facilities are provided for the 
practical study of Chemistry, Physics, Geology and Mineralogy, Zoology, 
Entomology, Botany, Horticulture and Agriculture. The total value of 
scientific apparatus is about $150,000. 



70 NEBRASKA. 

The eqiiipment of the MiUtary Department consists of one hundred and 
ninety Springaeld Cadet Rifles with accoutrements; a battery of four 
3-inch field rifles; fifty cavalry sabres; sixteen commissioned officers' 
swords and belts; musical instruments and uniforms for military band ; 
flags, etc. 

The Armory is open for drill and practice at stated times during the 
week. All male students in the coljege classes are required to drill six 
consecutive semesters, unless excused by the Chancellor. 

The Gymnasium has been opened to the young men and women of the 
University, under the supervision of a competent director. It is not a play 
room, but the laboratory of the instructor in Physical Training. As such 
it affords endless facilities for regular and systematic exercise in various 
lines to students of both sexes. All students are required to take certain 
work under the Director during the first two years of residence. 

Any young man or woman who has finished the course in a good country 
school may enter the University and find educational work and a welcome. 
The studies w^hich must be completed before taking up the preparatory 
courses of the University and which are not carried at all in this institution 
are: English Grammar; Arithmetic — fractions, denominate numbers, per- 
centage and its applications, 'analysis and proportion; Descriptive and 
Physical Geography, and Elementary United States History. 

Any student having taken work in advance of the very simple require- 
ments just mentiotied, will be given credit for such work and will be allowed 
to take the most advanced standing consistent with his acquirements. 

There are a large number of city high schools in different parts of 
Nebraska that fit students for advanced standing. The work of these 
schools is properly accredited by the University. Those coming from these 
schools are not obliged to take examinations at Lincoln in work which has 
been completed in such schools. The University authorities prefer that 
all students should remain at home schools as long as possible. Lists of 
accredited high schools will be sent on application. These schools admit 
pupils from the country on the payment of a small term fee. 

All University work begins with the opening of the University year ; 
but a student prepared to take advanced work may enter at any time. 

Opportunities for work are afforded in almost every conceivable direc- 
tion, whether he be a candidate for a degree, or can remain but a limited 
time. 

Following are some of the more important courses : 

^^ncr<ZitMre— Illustrated by a farm, laboratory, museum and library. 

Art — Drawing modeling, designing, painting, perspective and lectures 
on art histor3^ 

Botany— A thorough course in general and cryptogamic botany. 
Chemistry — One large building is entirely devoted to this subject. 



NEBRASKA. 71 

Civil Engineering — Graduates are in demand for railroad and other 
work. 

Electrical and Steam Engineering — A full course, with $30,000 in illustra- 
tive apparatus. 

English — A thorough drill in the structure and use of the English 
language. 

English Literature — The standard English authors are critically studied. 

Economic and Political /Science— The problems of to-day are invest- 
igated. 

Geology— A large museum, special attention to the geology of Nebraska. 

Greek — A thorough drill in the structure and literature of the language. 

History — Extended courses in all departments of history. 

HorticultU7'e—l\l\istr Sited by orchards, vineyards, museum and library. 

Latin— A thorough drill in the structure and literature of the language. 

Laio College—A large faculty and full courses, including two years of 
under-graduate and one year of post-graduate work. 

Manual Training — Complete courses in wood and metal working, 
including design and pattern making. 

Mathematics — A full course in higher mathematics. 

Medicine— A coufse accredited as preparatory work by best medical 
colleges. 

Military Science —LeciMve^ on military science, and battalion and artil- 
lery drill. 

Modern Languages — German, French, Spanish, Italiana and Scandi- 
navian. • 

iir?/s?c— Lessons in vocal and instrumental music, with orchestral train- 
ing and practice. 

Begalar Courses of /S'iwiZ^/— Classical, Literary, Philosophic, English, 
Electrical and Steam Engineering, Scientific, Civil Engineering and Agri- 
culture; leading to appropriate degrees. 

Preparatory Courses — Prepare for all under-graduate courses in the 
University, 

Special Courses — Preparatory to Law, to Medicine, to Journalism, to 
Teaching ; as well as short, practical courses for Farmers and for those 
engaged in the manufacture of beet sugar. 

Special Students - Persons of mature age and definite purpose may enter 
the University at any time and pursue any one or more topics in which 
they are interested and which their previous education and training fit 
them to study. 

Summer School— A special school for Nebraska teachers ; in which they 
may secure the latest results of all study and research, and receive instruc- 
tion in the most approved meth.ods a^^d in the use of the best apparatus. 



72 NEBRASKA. 

Manual Labor. While the University cannot undertake to furnish 
manual labor to many students, it is enabled to do so to a limited extent 
upon the farm and campus, and in the various buildings, at rates varying 
from fifteen to twenty-five cents per hour (dependent upon the quality of 
the work). Many students find work in private families and in various 
occupations, by means of which they defray a portion of their expenses. 
A person of ability and energy, who is master of a trade or who can do 
first-class work, can always find remunerative employment. It is not 
known that any student of ordinary energy and industry was ever obliged to 
leave the University because of lack of money for necessary expenses, after 
having been say sixty days on the ground — or long enough to inform him- 
self as to opportunities for securing employment. An employment bureau 
is maintained at the University, where the names of those seeking work 
and those desiring workers are recorded. 



STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 

{L->caled at Peru.) 

BUILDINGS. 

The school buildings, five in number, are large and commodious. All 
the buildings are heated by steam, lighted by electricity, and are provided 
with an ample system of water w-orks. 

Three years ago a building was erected on the campus and occupied by 
the Library, which now numbers 5,547 bound volumes, including 750 pub- 
lic documents. The Reading Room is supplied with the leading magazines 
and a large number of daily and weekly papers. 

The Laboratories are well equipped and large enough to accommodate 
all the students desiring to do laboratory work. 

The school has a good Observatory, with a serviceable equatorially- 
mounted astronomical telescope, which adds very materially to the school 
facilities. ^ 

THE ATTENDANCE 

For the year 1892, w^as 435, of which 103 were not in Normal courses. 
Nearly all the graduates from both departments are now engaged in teach- 
ing in this State. The demand for Normal graduates is increasing year by 
year. 

THE AIM OF THE INSTITUTION 

Is to train competent teaithers for the public schools. At present, the 
members of the Practice School pay no matriculation fee. They receive 
gratuitous instruction from the most skilled teachers, except for two hours 



NEBRASKA. 73 

of each day, when they are in the hands of student teachers, who are 
directed by the critic teachers. Before receiving the certificate of the 
Board, each member of the Training School spends from twelve to fourteen 
weeks in actual practice and observation under the careful direction of the 
Superintendent of Practice and of the critic teachers. 

APPARATUS AND CABINET. 

For illustration in the several departments of Natural History, there is 
a good collection of minerals and fossils, together with cabinets of Zoology, 
Entomology and Botany, which are enlarged and enriched by contributions 
and by the work of students in the scientific departments. 

The chemical and physical apparatus is sufficient for illustrating these 
departments of science and giving the students efficient laboratory oractice. 

ADMISSION. 

As the State Normal School is not, primarily, an institution for the 
education of children or people in general, but a professional school for 
preparing trained teachers for the public schools of Nebraska, and as its 
course of study, being arranged with special reference to this end, can not 
be accomplished in a fragmentary way with advantage to the student, but 
with great disadvantage to the school, all applicants admitted in accord- 
ance with the regulations of the Board of Education must be persons of 
proper age and character, who have a fair knowledge of the common 
branches and are in good faith preparing to teach. In order to enter the 
Elementary Course, students must pass a satisfactory examination in Spell- 
ing, Reading, the use of Language, and the rudiments of Arithmetic and 
Geography. Students holding a certificate of qualification in»the Elemen- 
tary Course will be allowed to enter the Higher Course without further 
examination. Provisions have been made for admitting students in a 
Preparatory Department and in Elementary Classes for training teachers, 
which will be maijily taught by the members of the Advanced Classes in 
the Normal Department, under the eye of trained instructors. 

STATE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. 

{Located at Kearney.) 

The object of the State Industrial School is to take the incorrigible 
juveniles of the State and transform them into good men. The means 
used for the accomplishment of this object are educational advancement, 
industrial training, moral culture and physical reconstruction. The 
results become more permanent and gratifying each year. 

The interest of the school does not cease when the boys leave the 
school. Homes are provided for the homeless, and the school continues 
to be the friend and counselor of each. Nearly all the boys for whom 
Jiomes have been provided by the school are doing well. 



74 NEBRASKA. 

There have been 850 commitments since the opening of the school ; 
about 675 have left the school and 57 have been transferred to the Girls' 
Industrial School, at Geneva. There are at present about 220 pupils. 

THE RELIGIOUS SERVICES 

Are conducted by the regularly appointed Chaplain, who conducts the 
Sabbath School on Sabbath morning, and preaching services on Sabbath 
afternoon. He is also the agent of the Superintendent in securing homes 
for the paroled boys. 

THE BRANCHES TAUGHT 

Are History, Geography, Grammar, Penmanship, Reading, Writing and 
other minor topics; literary exercises are required, and some of the boys 
are taught instrumental and vocal music. Aside from these branches the 
boys are taught printing, shoemaking, tailoring, firing, wood and iron 
work, carpentry, cooking, laundry work, gardening, and in addition they 
wait on the tables and do general house work. 

THE PAPER. 

A paper is published semi-monthly called *'The Industrial School 
Courier." The mechanical work is done by the boys under the direction 
of an instructor. The editorial, local and general literary department is 
under the supervision of the Superintendent of the school. The publica- 
tion of the paper has not only been of local interest, but has directed the 
attention of the State to the school. 

An excellent work is being done by the institution, which ranks among 
the leading reformatories of the United States. 

GIRLS' INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR JUVENILE DELINQUENTS. 

{Located at Geneva.) 

This institution is an outgrowth of the State Industrial School. For 
several years it has been felt that co-reformatory work was not advisable, 
and that the interests and welfare of the boys and girls would be subserved 
by their becoming separated. 

' The girls' school was estabhshed in 1891. The grounds include 40 acres 
of smooth and fertile soil, sloping gently to the north. The building is 
known in reformatories as a double family building. It is 112 feet long, 
55 feet wide, with three floors above the basement. The outside walls are 
built of pressed brick with Colorado brown sandstone trimmings. There 
is nothing about the place suggestive of a place of retention. The children 
are watched over and cared for by kind assistants and have constantly 
held up before them the beauties of an honorable, womanly life. 



NEBRASKA. 75 

The larger girls are detailed for work and instruction in the Industrial 
Department four hours in the morning, and attend school four hours in the 
afternoon. The smaller girls attend school four hours in the morning and 
are detailed for departmental instruction for part of each afternoon. 

THE BRANCHES TAUGHT 

In this school are the same as those taught in the public schools of the 
State. The, Industrial branches are such as every good housekeeper 
should know. 

DEMERITS. 

When a girl is received into the school she is given four or five or six 
thousand demerits, according to the gravity of the offense for which she is 
committed. Ten or six demerits are canceled each day that she iS; perfect 
in studies, conduct and work. When she has canceled all her demerits, 
she is retained until a suitable home can be found for her, if she has no 
home of her own. 

The discipline of the school is that of a well-regulated family. 

INDUSTRIAL HOME FOR WOMEN. 

{Located at MUford.) 

This institution was established as a home for fallen women and is 
conducted upon the plan of a model home. As those who co- ; '^ to its doors 
come voluntarily, cheerful obedience is expected of all inmates. 

Six weeks each are devoted to the laundry, to plain and pastry cooking, 
to dining-room work and to dormitory work; the remaining time is spent 
in the sewing-room — each inmate attending school every afternoon. This 
system has proved most satisfactory in its results. The school is thoroughly 
organized, and all the common branches are taught. 

Those who intend to make dressmaking a means of support are allowed 
three months in the sewing-room, with the privilege of remaining until 
they become competent seamstresses. 

ATTENDANCE. 

The largest number enrolled at the school is forty -four ; the average 
attendance is twenty-one. 

DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM. 

The Nebraska institute for the deaf and dumb is located at Omaha. It 
has a commanding location. The grounds are covered with trees of about 
twenty-three years growth, and are, including the buildings, valued at 
about $117,000. 



76 NEBRASKA. 



THE OBJECT 

Of the school is to educate those children of this State M^ho are too deaf to 
be instructed in the common schools. The methods employed are princi- 
pally what might be termed eclective; though other systems are employed 
as seems best fitted to the individual case. 

Many of the pupils are taught speech, and some are instructed entirely 
by speech. 

MANUAL TRAINING. 

There is a mechanical department connected with the institution. In 
the school of carpentry the boys are instructed in the art of tools — carving, 
engraving, turning, scroll-sawing, joinery and repair work. A school of 
printing provides work for another class. They are taught type-setting 
and job work. Most of the printing of the institute is done by the students 
under the direction of a foreman. 

There is a sewing-school and dressmaking department for the girls. 

Instruction in drawing is offered in the advanced grades, and art studio 
work is provided for those who take a special interest in art and have 
special talent in this direction. 

ATTENDANCE. 

The school is now crowded, and additional room is to be provided by 
the present legislature. 

The Nebraska school has a very good name throughout the country, 
and is favorably known in some foreign countries. 

INSTITUTE FOE THE BLIND. 

[Located at Nebraska City.) 

This institution takes the place for the blind children of the State of 
the public schools for others. Tlie studies pursued are identical, and, with 
t!ieapi)V I'l, t'l ■ ' , i Call easily keep pace in school 

v.'or' ' '•isters. 

• i)artment, where skill in 

! ■ ..ifd that assist pupils in 

■ n i:i the lUusic Depart- 

Tid harmony. 

.L tlie institute. 

. altute receives special 

aaeaUuU, 



NEBRASKA 



77 



INSTITUTE FOR THE FE£:BLE-MINDED. 
{Located at Beatrice.) 

In this Institute the first object is to gain the child's interest, which in 
Itself, often takes months. The moment interest is shown the essential 
point for future advancement is gained. In school work the kindergarten 
methods are employed. Most of the children delight in paper weavin- 
and folding, card sewing, etc., and many have become quite proficient'' 
Some of the more advanced students are given instruction in the various 
forms of industrial work. 

All the children are engaged in school work, more than half speak quite 
plainly, while the remainder speak either indistinctly or make no attempt 
to speak at all. Quite a number have been taught to write,and often write 
letters home without assistance. A few are able to do some work in 
arithmetic, rarely further than to fractions; and a few can be taught the 
primary colors. 

INSANE ASYLUMS. 
This State has three Insane Asylums; one at Lincoln, one at Hastings 
one at Norfolk. The management and methods follow the most approved 
results of modern thought and investigation along these lines. 
REPORT OF PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS 

FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE, 1892. 

Nebraska has its full quota of private educational institutions, all in a 
The following statistics will be of interest: 



flourishing condition. 



Name. No. of 

Students. 

Beatrice Business College 240 

Bennett Academy 58 

Blake School 97 

Brownell Hall 

Cotner University 283 

Creighton College 172 

Doane College I53 

Franklin Academy 142 

Fremont Business College 101 

Gates College 204 

Gibbon Normal 125 

Hastings College 210 

Nebraska Normal 432 

Nebraska Wesleyan University 190 

North Nebraska Seminary 131 

Pawnee City Academy 137 

Scotia Normal and Business College 75 

University of Omaha 80 

Weeping Water Academy 99 

York College 205 



Value of 


Value of 


No. of 


Buildings 


Scientific 


Volumes 


and Grounds. 


A])paratus. 

* 


in Library 


2,000 






5,000 






165,000 


1,000 


3,000 


200,000 




1,000 
6,000 


250,000 


15,000 


82,500 


5,154 


5,700 


16,500 


300 




1,500 


100 


125 


20,000 




4,500 
1,000 


25,000 


1,000 


7,500 


1,000 


2,000 


50,000 


450 


650 


233,000 


4,000 


2,000 


10,500 


175 


650 


3,000 




1^5 


6,000 






60,900 


300 


2,000 


4,000 


100 


3,000 


3,100 


300 


400 



78 NlOIJRASKA. 

NEBRASKA LANDS AND CEREALS. 

The character of the country west of the Missouri and tributary to tiie 
Union Pacific has become so well and wideiy known that the great majority 
of settlers and new-comers are generally fixed as to purpose before remov- 
ing hither; but in answer to the occasional inquiry under this head, v.e 
can truly declare that the range of possibilities is as gre?.t as the country 
is rich and vast, and its future assured. 

There is no part of the West where such a variety of crops can be 
grown, and all yielding good profits every year as a general rule; but if 
one should fail, the farmer still has good returns from others, the raising 
and feeding of cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry, selling milk to the cream- 
ery, and the growing of such crops as flax, broom-corn, etc., which can all 
be carried on in connection with growing grain, which eastern farmers 
once thought was the sole dependence. Here, after the first years of 
wheat, corn has been grown on the same land for twenty years in succes- 
sion without a failure. Wherever good corn lands are found, there other 
crops will flourish. Orchards, it will also be noticed, flourish everywhere 
in the West where corn grows. Wheat succeeds everywhere on the new 
lands, but after two or three crops corn proves more profitable. Corn is 
the great crop of the country, and one which has succeeded every year 
since its planting commenced in Nebraska. Oats are having a much 
larger acreage each succeeding year. The advantages of this grain ground 
with corn, etc., for all kinds of stock, is being understood. E-ye is gener- 
ally sown early in the fall for pasturage, afterw^ard giving a good crop of 
grain. Barley is being generally raised, and proves profitable both for 
market and feeding. The acreage of flax has wonderfully increased 
during the past two years. The crop may be considered a very reliable 
one, the product always in demand. Broom-corn is one of the most 
profitable crops in Western Nebraska. A grower in Hall county reports a 
net profit of $34 per acre, another in Merrick has grown nine crops witli- 
out a failure. The increase of cane planting in the last two or three years 
promises, at a very early day, a large home production of both sugar and 
syrup. Like broom-corn, the crop is a sure.one, with less cultivation than 
corn, and does not need as much moisture. A grower in Colfax reports, 
from several years' experience, a return of ^40 to $50 per acre, and other 
sections equal results. Millet is in general favor for winter feed for stock, 
and especially for sheep, yielding a large amount per acre. Buffalo and 
other western counties give an average of four tons per acre. 



NEBRASKA. 
TOBACCO. 



plant thrives and good crops ar o"",H V ";"'' de.naonstrate that tke 
tned at Schuyler, on the main ine o"« e Unf P ''f '"""' '"' ''^«" 
Omaha. Mr. H. Abraham, of G-lnd^'atl,,.-'^*''''"' '* ""''' f™« 
v>s.ted the tohacco fields at Schu,^ ':nd':itTa?f^i^~-«^-- 

obstacles (hail, wind-stormrdLh'"f^ "" "''""^ '""^^ 

coantry. Thirty acres i„"ll' were Lsed ™ "-™'' "~"° '° "">' o^-l^"- 

Sth, taking in all about sixty dlys'Thldero "/''', "''™* ^^^'^'"'^'^^ 
much earlier in this climate than in Iv. f, "'"' "'^' '''™<^'^° "P^"« 

and that no injury from frost s " K^d "|" '^^^^--g district, 
this season was of a Connecticut lUvLT u- v ^ ''^""^^ °* ^'^'^^ «s«d 
thiscountry than any other valty ' '"""' ^""'^ ''''^P'^^^'i *» 

yea: dt:raL'^r;:J^^^^^ -- The first 

the Platte valley; the second tint tohr^^ of tobacco could be raised in 
mercial value to induce grow "g u Tnd thi '' '"''"'^ °' ^"«'''-' -»" 
tobacco canbe raised herf which^;;„-^Jt/- ^^ -2^"'^ 

conclude there is none finer. ^'stncts, when at this stage, and must 

all ZZ:iJntZt^elZa ^ '""' ^° ^'^^''™-^ '"^-^o shed, with 
was housed aboufAugSth' ^^^'1!^^:^ ^-^^"f -«-^^ -^i ch 
delicate glossy colors, the veins are Is fine !, ?.!;^ ^"^ ^"'^ '^'"^'"e 
discovered anything which would indicate whit" '' ™r "" ^'"'« "«^ 

riep^sjir-^'^"— - - -Xi^ir«::t .tJiifwifg:-: 
MeZ: wrrnd^^Nie™;:: rier/ir- " ^^ " ^^ ■^-«"-'' «-'• 

pound, the yield being estimated at I wn f '*='" ^^'^'" ''^"'^ Per 

$225 per acre. And they ha"e twelve a esoTtl^ "" '"I' "'"^" "^'- 
>^as Charge of this farm, says it has co^sfthllt iToTer :t ^°""' ^''^^ 



80 NEBRASKA. 

merit without the management of a skilled overseer of long experience 
would result i^ loss and discouragement. Improved sheds must also be 
erected. 

"But by careful management Nebraska can be made a tobacco growing 
State. 

"Honor is due to Messrs. Wells and Nieman for enterprise and persever- 
ance without bounds shown by them, and our State will have to thank 
them for the starting of a great agricultural industry, which will outshine 
all the other crops that have made Nebraska famous." 



LIVE STOCK INTERESTS. 



There is no other interest as prominent to-day as that of cattle raising 
and fattening for market, as well as growing young stock for breeding 
purposes. The great opportunity still open to secure lands suitable for 
this business should be embraced at once. The success and profits of the 
past few^ years have attracted a large number of eastern stockmen. 

The abundance of summer and winter pasture, and the great corn 
product, have caused Nebraska to be called the best meat-producing State 
in the West, wiiere a man can make the largest percentage of profit on his 
capital invested. There is a considerable extent of both government and 
railroad lands which are well adapted in every respect for this business. 

The raising of horses, for which the demand has, to the present, been 
supplied from other States, can be carried on here with large profit. J. L. 
Brott, of Frontier county, says their product is worth more than that of 
200 cows, and it costs no more to raise them till three years old than a 
steer of the same age. There is no disease, no heaves or spavin, and a 
blemish is rare. They have better wind and endurance than those grown 
in stables and fed on grain and hay. Thousands of horses are finding 
their own living on the western plains, without shelter, grain or care 
during the winter, and are fat in the spring. Clydesdale and Norman 
stallions, bred to fair-sized American mares, are producing animals with 
which the market has never yet been overstocked, at good prices. 

At present, in most of the western counties, where men commenced on 
homesteads a few years ago, will be found successful sheep growing. The 
abundant buffalo grass gives them rich pasturage, summer and winter. 
The high, dry lands are most favorable to health; foot rot is unknown. 
The percentage of increase is much higher, and the lambs are stronger 
than those of the Eastern States. Millet, oats, etc., for winter feeding, 
can be grown at small expense. Protection, better than sheds of pine 
lumber, can be made by building walls of sod and covering them with poles 
and hay or straw. The pioneer of small means will find that he can make 



NEBRASKA. 81 

his stables of prairie sod, which are warm, and at the start answer all the 
demand. In the rougher parts of Dawson, Custer, Frontier and adjacent 
counties are found the ideal sheep ranches, nature providing the neces- 
sary shelter. 

Hogs, corn and pork combined, are called the great crop of Nebraska, 
and nothing has paid so well. Farmers have received, by breeding, 100 
per cent more for their own corn than the market price, when turned into 
pork. The great and increasing population at home and abroad calls for 
meat, and for this the consumer must look to the prairies of the West and 
the corn lands. 



SOME ADVANTAGES. 



Creameries and cheese factories have developed in Nebraska within 
the last few years, and are proving almost universally a source of profit, 
not only to the operator, but to parties owning cows and selling their milk 
and cream. The demand for butter at good prices (ranging from 25 to 45 
cents according to the season) has constantly increased, thus increasingthe 
demand for milk. The profit per cow has frequently been from |15 to |25 
per season, a larger and easier return than from any other method. 

It will be noticed that nearly half the people in Nebraska reside in 
counties tributary to the Union Pacific Railway, and that more than half 
the population added to the total for the State in the past five years is 
found in these counties. They have kept fully abreast with the progress 
of the State. They are by far the best and richest counties in the State. 

In Nebraska every man can own a farm. In fact, nearly every man 
does own a farm, if he is a farmer. He can rent land on shares, giving 
his landlord about one-third of his crop, or he can pay a cash rental of 
from $3 to $5 per acre, if preferred. Those who wish to cultivate a larger 
acreage than they are able to own, will find a wide area of cultivated land 
which can be hired from year to year, the landlord usually furnishing 
house, barn and other farm buildings. A great many farmers rent lands 
in the manner indicated, and meanwhile purchase, pay for, and iVciprove 
land in the same vicinity. Breaking is usually done between seasons, 
when regular farm work is less engrossing than at other/ ^es. A 
''renter" can, therefore, make his living on rented grouncl; and at the 
sanae time obtain and break land of his own. 

There are millions of uncultivated acres of as good lands as the sun of 
heaven ever shone upon. They are awaiting the settler and his plowshare. 
The young State is forging ahead with most startling rapidity. No other 
State of the Union has experienced so much growth, and in no other are 
farmers so generally prosperous. The days of experiment are past, and 
Nebraska's fame as an agricultural commonM-ealth is established beyond 



82 NEBRASKA. 

all possible cavil. It is no exaggeration to pronounce it the best of all the 
farming States for the man of moderate means. The long, severe winters 
of the North, and the hot burning winds of the South are both escaped. 
The golden mean between these extremes is Nebraska. 

It is these facts which bring the best of all the Western immigration to 
the Prairie State of the trans-Missouri country. 



SOME NEBRASKA TOWNS. 



The tourist, the health-seeker, or the home-seeker arriving in Omaha 
stands at the main gateway of the great Union Pacific System, the original 
trans-continental route. The main line stretches across the State, follow- 
ing the grand valley of the Platte, until it enters Wyoming. 



OMAHA. 



Of Omaha, the metropolitan city of Nebraska, it is not intended to 
make special mention in this pamphlet. To those, however, who desire to 
enter into extensive business affairs requiring heavy capital, this city offers 
fine advantages, being one of the greatest wholesale points in the West. 
Omaha has a population of 150,000, and all the luxuries ar^ conveniences 
of a metropolis; in proportion to size, Omaha is the best lighted and best 
paved city in the West. 

Omaha's bank clearings have shown a greater per cent of increase 
during the past year tiian have those of any other city; her wholesale 
houses have nearly doubled their business within the past year. 

Omaha has had fewer failures and smaller losses than any city of its 
size on the continent. 

Omaha has the largest smelting works in the world. 

Omaha is the third pork-packing center in the world, and the present 
rate of increase in the business being done will place this city in the 
second place within a few months. 

Omaha, according to the census of 1890, had a population of 140,452. 
The population in 1880 was 30,518. 

Omaha has 18,180 pupils in the public and denominational schools. 

Omaha has seventy miles of paved streets. 

There are nearly 200 manufacturing establishments in the city, having 
a capital invested of |9,000,000. 



NEB R A S K A . 83 

There are 457 teachers employed in the schools and colleges of the city. 

There are 150 miles of graded streets in Omaha. 

There are sixty public school buildings in Omaha. 

Omaha has a complete sewer system, nearly 100 miles in all. 

There are nine national, nine savings and two State banks in Omaha, 
with a combined capital of ?6, 000, 000 and deposits averaging $25,000,000. 

There are more than 100 churches in Omaha. 

Omaha has as fine a water plant as ftiere is in the country. It was 
built at a cost of $7,000,000 and has a capacity of 50,000,000 gallons daily. 

Omaha has ninety miles of electric railways. 

Omaha has. the largest distillery in the world and three of the largest 
breweries in the United States. 

The actual real estate valuation is $250,000,000, while the assessment for 
taxation is based on a one-tenth valuation. 

The post office receipts for the year were $284,588.29. This department 
gave employment to forty-six clerks and sixty-six carriers. 

Omaha has the largest white lead v/orks in the world. 

All of the vast Union Pacific System is managed directly from the 
Union Pacific Headquarters Building in Omaha. There are about 24,000 
employes with a monthly pay roll of $1,600,000. About 2,200 of the 
employes make Omaha their home, 500 are engaged at the headquarters, 
1,300 in the shops, and the remainder in the j'ards and local freight offices. 

I 

VALLEY 



Is northwest of Omaha, in Douglas county, thirty -five miles distant. It is 
the junction of the Union Pacific Railway and its Republican Valley 
branch, and is twelve miles from Fremont. The town is growing, having 
now a population of 600. The churches and schools are well maintained ; 
elevation 1,137 feet. 

FREMONT 

Is the first town of importance on the main line of the Union Pacific, forty- 
seven miles west of Omaha. It is situated at the confluence of the Elk- 
horn and Platte Valleys, two of the picturesque, productive, and densely 
populated valleys of the State. Its elevation is 1,192 feet. Fremont has 
enjoyed a solid, substantial, healthy growth for many years, and has now 
a population of 9,000. The water system is admirable, four miles of mains 
giving ample supply ; the principal streets and business houses are lighted 



84 NEBRASKA. 

with electricity ; there are four miles of horse-car tracks, four banks, and 
four loan and security companies; a packing house of 1,000 daily capacity, 
a canning factory, foundry, brick company, planing mills, elevators, and a 
large brewery. The Nebraska Creamery is one of the largest in the West, 
500,000 pounds of butter being produced annually. There are two daily 
papers and several weeklies published in Fremont ; six public school build- 
ings, with a seating capacity for 2,000 pupils, and a business college. 
Fremont has often been called the prettiest city in the State; the early 
comers were prodigal in the planting of shade trees, and the town is now 
almost embowered. It is conceded that Fremont contains more fine 
residences in proportion to its size than any other city in Nebraska. 



SCHUYLER 



Is a vigorous town of 3,000 people, seventy-six miles from Omaha, on the 
main line of the Union Pacific; elevation 1,346 feet. Situated a short dis- 
tance north of the Platte river, it is surrounded by a magnificent country, 
finely cultivated, and producing large crops. A large proportion of the 
population of Schuyler is Bohemian— a sturdy, steady, reliable class of 
citizenship. The business blocks are substantial and elegant — the banks, 
court-house, schools, and other structures showing marked architectural 
taste. There are three national banks and a loan and trust company. 
There are three papers published in Schuyler, and among other industries 
are extensive flouring mills, sorghum and sugar works, and a brewery. 
The water works system in use cost $30,000. 

COLUMBUS 



Is a highly prosperous town of 5,500 inhabitants, ninety-two miles from 
Omaha, on the main line of the Union Pacific, and has an elevation of 
1,442 feet. The city lies three miles north of the Platte river. Water 
works, electric lights, and street railway are now in full operation. The 
opera house has a seating capacity of 800, and Mtennerchor Hall will 
accommodate 300; a Catholic monastery, located on an elevation overlook- 
ing the city, occupies an acre of brick buildings, and belongs to the order 
of St. Francis. Connected with this is an academy, under the direction of 
the Franciscan Sisters, for the education of girls, and in addition thereto 
the hospital of St. Francis, open for the unfortunate of every race and 
religion. There are two national banks in Columbus, a good hotel, exten- 
sive roller mills, elevator, packing house, and four newspapers. 

From Columbus the Union Pacific sends out two branches— one to Nor- 
folk, fifty miles north, and the other to Albion, forty-three miles north- 
west. The country on both these branches is accounted among the richest 
sections in Nebraska. Immense crops of corn are raised, cattle forming 
the staple industry. 



NEBRASKA. 

o5 



OCONEE, 

Nine miles north of Columbus, elevation 1 489 feet i« f h<. • .- 

for the branches, and has about 200 inhabitants The n! ? r T ^'^^ 

tance on the Norfolk branch is '^^^^^^^^^«- The next town of impor- 

PLATTE CENTRE, 

flouHn, .HI, etc. The o'X or^^Fr.^ 'C^-^rUr G^^f ' 
and stock are the principal shipments. convent here. Grain 

MADISON, 

The county seat of Madison county, elevation 7 ^74 .'o ^w . ^ 

north of Columbus, and has 1 600 i ihabitan^/ T^^ thirty-five miles 

NORFOLK 

Is fifty miles north of Columbus, elevation 1 514 anH i« » t. • ,,. 

city of 6,000 inhabitants. The town t locaited ' t^.i ''?^'' """^«<'"« 

forks of the Elkhorn river thn, J, • IT ^ confluence of two 

with handsome business bloolf. ZT , P"ncipal streets are lined 

the suburbs. Norf Ik has ever^fl , 7 '''^""' residences are seen in 

waterworks an ar;!Ll7::orrureltr^^^^^^ 

foundry and machine shops, canning taot-Z Jt u ^ *'"''''' 

mUte, beet sugar plant, brick and trirW '^,' "^ ^^ ^™''' *'""""^ 
industries. There is a h.ndU ^°'^S'' ''''•?« creamery, and other 

newspapers. The State tln° ?"""'' ^'"'''' '^'"^ ''^"'^^ ''"d 'hree 
located here. Edu att„aradvanTJ ".^ "'"""' "' "" '''' °* ^''^'OO". - 
any State. The spTendW eoarlrv T^ I"' ''""' "'5'"^' '° '^e best in 
in favor of the future o this prosnertr *" '^"'''""^ '^ "^<* ^'""» P-"t 
Union Pacific runs into Sioux Cu7t """J;"^, "'^'- ^™" "'^^'""^ '^e 

establishedbetweenSouxaS'IlTrk /r' '^"'^'''•"°" ''^^ '"'™ 
Wion. connection may^ b'^ad^ ^^^^ .^Z''"' " ''"-' 



86 NEBRASKA. 

GENOA 

Is twenty-one miles north of Columbus, elevation 1,573, and has a popula- 
tion of 1,000. There is one bank, two newspapers, flour mill, and an 
elevator of 14,000 bushels daily capacity. The Indian Industrial School, 
sustained by the Government, is located here,^and has 170 pupils, from 
va ious tribes of Indians— Crows, Omahas, Pawiiees and Apaches. The 
area belonging to this school covers 320 acres of ground, the main building 
covering 6,000 square feet. The Indian boys and girls are taught the 
industrial arts successfully ; there are carpenter, shoe, tailor and harness 
shops, laundry, warehouse, etc. 

ALBION, 

Forty-three miles northwest from Columbus, elevation 1,747, has a popula- 
tion of 1,200, and is located on Beaver river, which furnishes power for 
two fine roller mills. The surrounding country is rich in agricultural 
products and live-stock. There are two banks, three newspapers, water 
works and good schools. • It is a supply and distributing point, well sup- 
relied with good hotels, elevators and flouring mills. It is situated on the 
Beaver river, a rapid stream which never runs drj', and affords an abundant 
water supply. Occupying a central position in Boone county, Albion 
drains a well-settled country for forty miles around. In the fertile valley 
of the Beaver, land can be bought for from $10 to $40 per acre. Stock- 
raising is carried on extensively, and corn is the principal product, yielding 
from forty to sixty bushels per acre. Small grain is raised in limited 
quantity. 

From Genoa a branch runs to Cedar Rapids. The first town from 
Genoa on this division is 

FULLERTON, 

A lively place of 1,500 inhabitants, elevation 1,623. The town is situated 
at the confluence of the Loup and Cedar rivers, thus affording good water- 
power. Two banks and two newspapers are established here. There are 
good schools, churches, opera house, flour mill, etc. 

CEDAR RAPIDS, 

Fifty-one miles northwest of Columbus, elevation 1,775, has 800 population, 
and is beautifully situated on the banks of the Cedar river. One flouring 
mill has a capacity of 150 barrels daily, and a creamery turns out 700 
pounds of butter per day. One bank and two newspapers are located 
here. The educational facilities are unusually good. 



NEBRASKA. 87 

Returning to Colambas, tho next town of importance on the main 
line is 

GRAND ISLAND, 

154 miles west from Omaha, elevation 1,860 feet. This is the county seat 
of Hall county, and is one of the most prosperous cities in the State, 
having a population of 10,000. Grand Island is situated in the center of a 
magnificent agricultural country, and Hall county exhibits at the State 
Fair have usually headed the list. The city is lighted with electricity, has 
a fine system of water-works, and here are located the division shops and 
steel rail mill of the Union Pacific, ejpploying about 1,000 men. Although 
this area is consid&red to be pretty well settled, still the sales of the 
Government land office, located at Grand Island, would indicate that new- 
comers are constantly arriving. The value of the manufactured output in 
this city exceeds §4,000,000 annually, and over 3,500 men are employed. 
An immense beet sugar manufactory has been established, costing $500,000, 
and employing a large number of men, the capacity of the factory being 
300 tons of beets daily. The Grand Island Canning Factory produces 
annually about one miUion cans of corn, and the creamery 250,000 pounds 
of butter. There are five banks in Grand Island, with an aggregate capital 
of over $1,000,000, two daily and seven weekly newspapers, a fine opera 
house with seating capacity of 1,200, extensive flouring mills, creamery, 
breweries, brick and marble works, foundry and packing house, all in a 
flourishing condition. The educational facilities are unusually fine. The 
United States land office and the Nebraska Soldiers' and Sailors' Home are 
located here. Over $1,000,000 has been expended annaally in building, 
and the city valuation at the present time is over six million dollars. In 
three years the city grew from 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants. With its rich 
surroundings, cheap fuel, and first-class facilities for distribution, the town 
is destined to become a very important manufacturing center. 

From here the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railway branches east to St. 
Joe, Missouri, 252 miles distant. The Union Pacific System sends out 
another branch north to Ord, Loup City and Nantasket. Proceeding on 
this northern division, the first town of importance is 

ST. PAUL, 

Twenty-two miles north of Grand Island, elevation 1,796 feet, with 2,000 
population. Here, as in most of the interior towns of Nebraska, the chief 
industries are grain and live stock. St. Paul is admirably equipped for so 
young a town. There are three banks, three newspapers, roller mills, 
water works, opera house, a board of trade and excellent graded schools. 
The town is in a condition to make rapid and substantial growth; v/ith a 
large portion of the trade of one of the finest counties in the State practi- 
cally at its command, the prediction of a most prosperous future is amply 
justified. 



88 NEB R A SKA. 

SCOTIA, 

Forty-five miles north from Grand Island, elevation 1,905 feet, population 
500. Scotia is beautifully situated in the North Loup Valley in the center 
of a fine farming region. There is abundance of high-grade limestone in 
the vicinity suitable for building purposes. The town has extensive brick- 
yards, two good flour mills, excellent schools, two banks and a newspaper. 

ORD 

Is sixty-one miles north from Grand Island, 2,047 feet elevation, and is 
very pleasantly situated on a high plateau overlooking the North Loup 
river valley. The town has 1,500 inhabitants. There are two banks, three 
newspapers, fine school houses, water works, board of trade, brick works, 
broom factory, soda water factory, roller mills and elevators. This North 
Loup Valley is one of the finest agricultural sections of Nebraska, and Ord, 
situated in the midst of an extensive grain growing region, unsurpassed 
in fertility, is the chief market. 

Returning to St. Paul, a branch of the Union Pacific runs to 

LOUP CITY, 

Sixty -one miles from Grand Island, elevation 2,067 feet, a town of 1,000 
inhabitants. This is another distributing point for a fine agricultural 
district. Loup City is a very fair sample of an inland Nebraska town — 
$16,000 water works, a $70,000 roller flour mill, substantial court house 
and graded schools. A canal 2^2 miles long, from the Middle Loup river, 
furnishes splendid water power. The valuation of Sherman county is 
placed at $1,200,000, and there are sixty -three school districts in the 
county. The town has good hotels, two banks, two newspapers, elevators 
and a first-class creamery. 

Returning to Grand Island, on the main line west, the next town of 
importance reached is 

KEARNEY. 

Kearney is 199 miles west from Omaha, and has a population of 10,000. 
The surrounding country is fine farming land, well watered and timbered, 
and the grain yield is very heavy. The State Reform School is located here, 
the buildings costing upward of $100,000. The city is beautifully situated 
on abroad, level plateau 2,146 feet above the level of the sea, insuring a 
bright, clear atmosphere and is located immediately south of the ridge 
separating the valleys of the Platte and Wood rivers, which affords the 
natural opportunity for the establishment of three artificial lakes, giving 
an immense water power, the capacity of which is scarcely disturbed by 



NEBRASKA. 89 

the various manufacturing plants now operated by it. In order to secure 
this immense power it was necessary to tap the Platte river at a proper 
grade and conduct the supply to the elevation between the Platte and 
Wood rivers which is situated immediately north of the city. This was 
done, and at Elm Creek, sixteen miles west, the water was obtained and 
led along the natural elevation which divides the valleys, and the water 
stored in the three lakes, from either of which it can be turned over falls 
sixty feet into the river again. The streets are broad, crossing each other 
at right angles, everywhere lined with shade trees, which do not, however, 
interfere with a comprehensive view of the many superb business blocks, 
handsome school, church and other public buildings, while the residence 
streets are lined with elegant and costly homes, beautified by fine shade 
trees, shrubs and flov/ers. Farther away in the suburbs are seen the tall 
chimneys of extensive manufacturing plants, which show the beginning of 
the usual possibilities of the city. Its railroad facilities are excellent, 
having the great railway system of the West, the Union Pacific, placing 
it in direct communication with all the principal cities east and west, and 
the Kearney & Black Hills Railway to the northwest. In public and 
private improvements it is not excelled by any city of its size between the 
Mississippi river and the Rocky mountains. Its water works are first class, 
have 22 miles of pipe, capacity 3,000,000 gallons per day, sewerage 
second to no city in the State. Extensive and excellent electric light 
plant; nine miles of electric street railway, well equipped and making 
communication with the various parts of the city rapid and convenient; a 
magnificent court house very fine in architectural style and possessing 
all modern conveniences, costing $100,000; a beautiful city hall, costing 
$30,000 ; a fine opera house, the latest addition being a magnificent stone 
block, five-story, with a seating capacity of 1,200, an'd costing $140,000. 
It has a large number of manufacturing enterprises ; a cotton mill with 
nearly 90,000 square feet of floor room, arranged for 15,000 spindles, 
employing at its full capacity 150 men, and capable of producing annually 
3,500,000 yards of muslin ; a canning factory with a capacity of a milhon 
and a half cans annually. In addition to this there are plow factories, 
foundry and machine works, cornice works, cooperage factory, oatmeal 
mills, paper mills, a hinge factory, and many other industries of equal 
importance. There are about a dozen substantial banks in the city, nine 
hotels, the best of school facilities, thirteen churches, two daily and four 
weekly papers. 

LEXINGTON 

Is 234 miles west of Omaha, elevation 2,885 feet, and has a population of 
1,500. The land adjacent to the town is all that could be desired for farm- 
ing or stock raising. Lexington uses the electric light, has an opera house 
seating 600 people, good educational advantages, flour mills, elevator, 
banks, and newspapers. The business blocks are particularly substantial 
and elegant for so young a town. 



90 NEBRASKA. 

GOTHENBURG 

Is 258 miles from Omaha, has an elevation of 2,557 feet, and 500 popula- 
tion. This rising young town is supported by a magnificent grain and 
stock raising country and is destined to become an important center in 
the Platte Valley. The town has two elevators, and heavy shipments of 
grain and stock are made at this point. The Gothenburg Water Power 
and Investment Company has constructed a canal from the Platte river, 
ten miles in length, which furnishes a grand water powder for every sort of 
manufacturing, and this power is being rapidly utilized. The town has 
three banks, good hotels, an energetic newspaper and prosperous schools. 

NORTH PLATTE 

Is 294 miles from Omaha, elevation 2,796, and has a population of 4,000. 
This is the end of the first passenger division of the Union Pacific, and 
located here are the company's extensive repair shops, employing a large 
number of men. There are three newspapers, two banks, creamery, flour- 
ing mills, and bottling works, electric light, and water w^orks. The United 
States land office is located here. Land in the vicinity of this town is 
admirably adapted for either farming or stock raising. 

OGALLALA 

Is the county seat of Keith county, 341 miles from Omaha, and has an 
elevation of 3,207 feet above sea level. The population is over 800, and is 
increasing rapidl)^ It is in the midst of the largest cattle district in the 
State. A new brick court house recently constructed, costing $20,000, is a 
beautiful structure which would be a credit to any tow^n in the State. A 
new brick school house has been erected at a cost of |10,000, and the Bank 
of Keith County have built a fine brick structure at a value of $8,000. The 
Ogaliala Roller Mills, having a capacity of 100 barrels a day, were erected 
at a cost of $25,000. They are the only mills between Greeley, Colo., and 
North Platte, and manufacture an excellent grade of flour. This would be 
an excellent point for^a creamery and canning factory, and the enterprise 
would find plenty of encouragement. 

^ JULESBURG, 

The junction of the Union Pacific Short Line to Denver, Colo., at an eleva- 
tion of 3,456 feet above the sea, is 372 miles from Omaha and 197 miles from 
Denver, and has a population of 600. The town was formerly located five 
miles further west, and nt one time boasted of a population of 5,000, but 
was totally destroy eti l>y Indians in 1864, and has since been located on a 



NEBRASKA. 



91 



slight eminence overlooking the surrounding country for many miles It 
IS located in Sedgwick county, Colo. The_soil in this vicinity is of a dark 
rich sandy loam, which produces abundance of cereals, grasses and fruits' 
The high altitude at which Julesburg is situated makes the climate healthy 
and bracing. A number of people have sought this point as a health 
resort, a physician might reap a harvest by locating a sanitarium here 
Several good schools have been erected here and have a good attendance. 
Good lands can yet be obtained here at very reasonable prices. 

SIDNEY 

Is 414 miles from Omaha, and has an altitude of 4,090 feet, and a popula- 
tion of 1,600 people. Extensive repair shops of the Union Pacific are 
located here, giving employment to a large number of men. The town 
does a large business with the country to the north toward the Black Hills. 
It is located in the midst of a great cattle country, but the land being 
fertile and well adapted to agriculture, it is rapidly being taken up by a 
thrifty class of farmers from the older States. Tiiere is a United States 
land ofiice here for the accommodatfon ,of the new settlers. Five com- 
panies of United States troops are stationed near here, occupying thirty 
acres of land just outside the city limits. The business of the town is 
large and varied, being at one time principal distributing point for the 
Black Hills. The buildings are substantial and handsome, and the schools 
and churches are well attended. 

Starting eastward from Grand Island over the St. Joseph & Grand 
Island Railway, the first town of importance met is 

HASTINGS, 

Twenty-five miles from Grand Island. The city of Hastings is a bright 
example of a M^estern town, where thrift, pluck, enterprise and a deter- 
mination to win have overcome all obstacles and won success. Dating only 
from 1872, the town to-day numbers 15,000 inhabitants, and presents the 
aspect of a small metropolis. This ''City of Plains" certainly looks 
metropolitan with its extensive gas works, electric plant, telephone 
system, fire department, hotels, banks, and manufactories. All this has 
been accomplished within the past few years, for the early history of the 
town is simply the record of every struggling country village. The soil of 
the adjacent farming country is a deep, rich, black loam, very easily 
cultivated and exceedingly productive. Hastings is the distributing point 
for all this section, and has, moreover, established a wide foreign trade ; 
the retail trade of the town approximates 13,000,000. 

^ Hastings is one of the liveliest as well as most prosperous cities in the 
West. Its business men are broad:gauged, clear-headed, liberal-spirited. 
The Hastings Board of Trade is a model for much larger cities. It has 



92 N E B R A SKA. 

about one hundred and fifty members, every man of whom works for the 
interest of the place at every opportunity. If he is called upon to contribute 
to a fund for any purpose, he doesn't wait to find out first whether he, 
personally, is to be directly benefited. The members proceed upon the 
sensible theory that what helps others must necessarily help them, and 
that whether it does or not, they, as citizens, owe something to the com- 
munity. With such a class of business men, any city must be devoid of 
all advantages to escape progress. 

FAIRFIELD 

Is eighteen miles east from Hastings, a town of 1,500 people, and in the 
center of a magnificent farming region. The farmers in this section are 
remarkably well-to-do ; large shipments of grain and live-stock are made 
annually; three elevators are engaged in handling the grain product. 
Fairfield has a creamery of 3,000 pounds daily capacity, steam syrup works, 
and the usual quota of religious and educational institutions. 
From here a branch runs to 

. ALMA, 

The county seat of Harlan county, with a population of 2,500. Alma is 
one of the most beautifully located towns in Nebraska. Situated on the 
Republican river in the midst of a magnificent farming country, the town 
presents all the indications of being an active commercial point in the 
near future. 

Alma has a pretty opera house, large flour mills, three newspapers and 
three banks. 

Resuming the eastward journey at Fairfield, the next town met is 

FAIRBURY, 

A strong, solid town of 5,000 people, having all the luxuries and comforts 
of a metropolitan city. The town supports a good opera house, has first- 
class business blocks and many fine residences. The line enters Kansas 
some distance east of Fairbury and stretches across that State to its 
destination at St. Joseph. 

From Fairbury one may journey north to McCool Junction, and from 
thence to 

YORK, 

A live, progressive city of 5,000 inhabitants, and possessing all the good 
features which are found in so many interior Nebraska towns. The ship- 
ments of grain and live-stock from this place are among the largest in 
Nebraska. Four elevators are employed in handling grain. Next is 
Stromsburg, the noted Scandinavian settlement, with 1,500 inhabitants. 



NEBRASKA. 93 

The Swedish Lutheran College is located here— a highly cultivated institu- 
tion. Immense crops of grain are harvested and shipped from this section 
From Stromsburg we run through Valparaiso, a town of 800 people, past 
Wahoo, an alert town of 2,500 inhabitants, largely settled by Bohemians 
and Swedes-those sturdiest of farmers, and so in the swing around the 
circle we have returned to Valley on main line just 35 miles west of Omaha. 
This whole section is a splendid panorama of choice farming country, 
well-nigh perfect in all the requirements of an agricultural district. 

LINCOLN. 

Should the home-seeker desire to see one of the loveliest valleys in the 
entire West, and also the capital city of Nebraska, let him board the train 
at Omaha that runs to Kansas City via Valley and Manhattan (or change 
from the main line at Valley to this train), and 57 miles south he will 
arrive at Lincoln. It has been asserted these many years that a capital 
never rises above the function of being a home for politics and the seat of 
government. Lincoln is a shining exception in this regard, for it is as 
bright, energetic and active a business center as any city of its size in the 
West. Manufactures flourish, and a phenomenal wholesale trade has been 
developed, so that Lincoln is a city of commercial activity in the very best 
sense of the term, and by no means given over to the science of legislation, 
to the exclusion of home industries. Already sixty miles of street railway 
lines are in operation, and over thirty miles of paved streets, and brick, 
stone and iron blocks give her an air of permanence. All the executive 
departments of the State are located here, as well as the State hospital for 
the insane. State Penitentiary and University. The population of Lincoln 
18 fully 60,000, and steadily increasing. The town is hanci^omely laid out. 
The streets are broad and well shaded, and very many elegant residences 
invite the inspection of the visitor. The advantages derived from being 
the seat of government are more than equaled by the possession of a 
singularly active, loyal, pull-all-together citizenship. This indomitable 
constancy to the home interests has made the city what it is, and will 
secure her future position beyond question. Lincoln is rapidly becoming 
an educational center, and in the past few years has secured the location 
of several institutions of learning-one the Nebraska Wesleyan, costing 
$75,000; another the Cotner Christian University. A third, the Union 
College of the Seventh-day Ad ventists, has recently been opened. Another 
fine institution is the Episcopal College for boys. 
Forty miles northward we come to 

BEATRICE, 

A beautiful city of 15,000 people, located on the Big Blue River, 134 miles 
from Omaha. Manufactures and all the varied industries that go to make 
up the assured success of a progressive city are found here. Beatrice 
justly prides herself on her public schools. At the great competitive 
examination at New Orleans in 1886, open to the world, Beatrice was 



94 



NEBRASKA. 



awarded the diploma. Plere are found Uie usual adjuncts of metropolitan 
life, electric light, street cars, etc. The Beatrice stone quarries have 
attracted much attention from the superior quality of the product, large 
quantities being shipped annually: 30,000,000 brick are manufactured 
annually; the canning factory employs 200 hands, and over $1,000,000 are 
expended for improvements, public or private, every year. Continuing 
this journey southward, we follow the Blue jj^iver past Mary ville, Kansas, 
to Manhattan, Kansas, where the Blue empties into the Kansas river, and 
the Omaha & Kansas City line connects with the main line eastbound to 
Kansas City or westbound to Denver. The Blue River Valley is one of 
the most productive and loveliest in the world. 

Regarding this hurried review of the more important towns on the main 
line, branches and auxiliaries pf the Union Pacific System in Nebraska, it 
is desired to say that the half has not been told. It is impossible within 
brief limits to tell the story of the v/onderful development of these sturdy 
young towns and cities— all made possible by the strong help of the Union 
'Pacific. Here are dozens of places, under 2,000 population, with their high 
grade schools, churches, gas and electric light, opera house and water 
works— all the comforts, the luxuries, and the elegancies of social and 
public life to be had for moderate taxation and a minimum cost of living. 
The educational and social advantages of many of these smaller towns is 
surprising to Eastern travelers and home-seekers, while the beauty and 
prosperity of this great agricultural State of Nebraska cannot be described 
in set terms, but must be seen to be appreciated. 




— TKCE — 



UNION 
PACIFIG 




Mil 




CanTring the United States Oyerland Mail for 

China and Japan, 



PASSING THROUGH THE MOST FERTILE PORTIONS OP 

KANSAS^ 

THE MOST PRODUCTIVE LANDS IN 

NEBRASKA^ 

THE FAMOUS PANHANDLE OF 

TEXAS, 

THROUGH THE ROMANTIC AND PICTURESQUE SCENERY OF 

OOL-ORADO^ 

AND THE FAMOUS GRAZING LANDS OP 

NA/VOMING_ 

IT IS THE MOST DIRECT ROUTE TO THE VINE-CLAD HILLS AND NUMEROUS 
HEALTH AND PLEASURE RESORTS OF 

UTAH_ 

IT IS THE ONLY LINE PASSING THROUGH THE MILLIONS OP ACRES OP GRAZING, 
FARMING, FRUIT RAISING AND MINING LANDS* OF 

IDAMO, 

IT IS THE DIRECT ROUTE TO THE AGRICULTURAL, GRAZING, MINING AND 
TIMBER LANDS OP THE STATES OF 

OREGON 

AND 

NA/ASHINGTON- 
IT IS ALSO THE "POPULAR ROUTE" to the famous yet 

PRACTICALLY UNKNOWN COUNTRY OF 

ALASKA 

VIA 

RORTL.AND- 

S. H. H. CLARK, E. DICKINSON, E. L. LOMAX, 

President, Gen'l Manager, Gen'l Passenger & Ticket Agt., 



WILL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT. 



Ajiy Ticket Agent in the United States or Canada can sell Tickets, check Baggage, and arrange 

for Pullman Palace Sleeping Car berths, via the Union Pacific Railway. 

Do iiot complete your arrangements for a Western trip until you have 

applied to the undersigned. Additional information. Maps, 

Time Tables, etc., will be cheerfully furnished. 



BOSTON, MASS.— 290 Washington St.— W. S. 
CoNDELL, New England Freight and Pas- 
senger Agent. 
E. M. Newbegix, Traveling Freight and 
Passenger Agent. 
BUTTE, MONT.— Cor. Main and Broadway.— 

E. V. Maze, General Agent. 
CHATTANOOGA, TENN.— 21 E. Eighth St.— 

F. L. Lynde, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
CHEYENNE, WTO.— C. W. Sweet, Freight and 

Ticket Agent. 
CHICAGO, ILL.— 191 South Clark Street.— 
W. T. Holly, City Passenger and Ticket Agt. 
T. W. Young, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
CINCINNATI, OHIO.— Room 35, Care w Bid g— 
J. D. Welsh, General Agent Freight and 
Passenger Departments. 
T. C. Hirst, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
A. G. Shearman, Traveling Freight and Pas- 
senger Agent. 
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.— 14 Pike's Peak 

Ave.— W. G. Rice, City Ticket Agent. 
COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA.— U. P. Transfer— 
A. J. Manderson, Gen'l Agt. 
R. W. Chamberlain, Passenger Agent. 
J. W. Maynard, Ticket Agent. 
J. C. Mitchell, City Ticket Agent, 421 B' way . 
DENVER, COLO. —1703 Larimer St.— Geo. Ady, 
General Agent. 
C. H. Titus, Traveling Passenger Agent. 

E. G. Patterson, City Ticket Agent. 

F. G. Erb, City Passenger Agent. 

Scott Bryan, Ticket Agent, Union Depot. 
DBS MOINES, IOWA.— 218 Fourth St.— E. M. 

Ford, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
DETROIT, MICH.— 155 Jefferson Ave.— D. W. 

Johnston, Traveling Passenger Agent. 

FT. WORTH, TEX.— D. B. Keeler, General 

Freight & Pass. Agent, Ft. Worth & D. C. Ry. 

A. J. Ratcliffe, Traveling Passenger Agent. 

N. S. Davis, City Passenger and Ticket 

Agent, 401 Main Street. 

HELENA, MONT.— 28 North Main St.— H. O. 

Wilson, Freight and Passenger Agent. 
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.— Room 6, Jackson Place. 

L. C. Morris, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
KANSAS CITY, MO.— 1038 Union Ave.— J. B. 
Frawley, General Agent Passenger Dept. 
J. B. Reese, Traveling Passenger Agent, 
H. K. Proudfit, City Passenger Agent. 
T. A. Shaw, Ticket Agent. 
C. A. Whittier, City Tkt. Agt., 1000 Main St. 
A. W. MiLLSPAUGH, Ticket Ag't, Union Depot. 
LONDON, ENGLAND — Thos. Cook &Sons, Eu- 
ropean Passenger Agents, Ludgate Circus 
LOS ANGELES, CAL.-229 South. Spring St.— 

G. F. Herb, Passenger Agent. 

NEW ORLEANS, LA.— 158 Common Street.— 

J. P. Douglass, Jr., General Agent. 
NEW WHATCOM, WASH.— W. E. O'Connor, 

Ticket Agent. 
NEW YORK CITY.— 287 Broadway.— R. Ten- 
BROECK, General Eastern Agent. 

S. A. Hutchison, Traveling Passenger Agent. 

J. D. Tenbroeck, Traveling Passenger Agent. 

A. LuNDQUiST, Traveling Passenger Agent. 

J. F. Wiley, City Passenger Agent. 



OAKLAND, CAL.-12th Street and Broadwav- 

Geo. B. Seaman, Passenger Agent. 
OGDEN, UTAH.— Union Depot.— C. A. Henry 

Ticket Agent. ' 

OLYMPIA, WASH.— Percival's Wharf.— J c. 
Percival, Ticket Agent. 

OMAHA, NEB.— 9th and Farnam Sts.— Frank 

N. Prophet, Traveling Passenger Agent 

Harry P. Deuel, City Ticket Agent. 1302 

Farnam Street. 
Geo. J. Buckingham, City Passenger Agent 
J. K. Chambers, Ticket Agent, Union Depot' 
PITTSBURGH, PA — Rooms 307 and 808 Fer- 
guson Block.— S. C. MiLBouRNE, Traveling 
Passenger Agent. 

PORTLAND, ORE.-254 Washington St.— W. H. 
Hurlburt, Assistant General Pass'r Agent. 
Geo. H. Hill, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
V. A. Schilling, City Ticket Agent. 
A. J. Goodrich, City Passenger Agent. 

E. S. Van Kuran, Ticket Agent, Grand Cen- 
tral Station. 

PORT TOWNSEND, WASH.-Union Wharf.- 

H. L. Tibbals, Ticket Agent. 
PUEBLO, COLO.— Cor. Union Ave. and First 

St.— A. S. Cuthbertson, General Agent. 
ST. JOSEPH, MO.— Chamber of Commerce.- 
S. M. Adsit, General Freight and Passenger 

Agent, St. J. & G. I. R. R. 

F. P. Wade. City Ticket Agent, Corner 3d 
and Francis Sts. 

Jo. Hansen, Ticket Agent, Union Depot. 
ST. LOUIS, MO.— 213 N. 4th St.-J. F. Aglar, 
Gen' 1 Agent Freight and Pass. Departments. 
N. Haight, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
E. R. Tuttle, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
E. A.Williams, City Freight rfnd Passenger 
Agent. 
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.— 201 Main St.-D. E. 
Burley, General Agent. 
p. S. Taggart, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
W. J. RiDD, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
L. J. Keyes, City Ticket Agent. 
W. S. Evans, City Passenger Agent. 
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.-l Montgomery St.— 
D. W. Hitchcock, Gen'l Ag't Passeng'r Dept 
C. E. Brown, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
W. R. Vice, Pacific Coast Passenger Agent. 
J. F. FuGAZi, Emigr't Agt.. 5 Montgomery Av 
SEATTLE, WASH.-705 Second St.-A. C. Mar- 
tin, General Agent. 
SIOUX CITY, IOWA.— 503 Fourth St.-D. M. 
Collins, General Agent. 
Geo. E. Abbott, Trav. Passenger Agent. 
H. M. BiRDSALL, City Ticket Agent. 
Geo. Ledyard, Citv Passenger Agent. 
Geo. F.Wheelock, Ticket Ag't, Union Depot. 
SPOKANE, WASH.— Cor. Riverside and Wash- 
ington.— Perry Griffin, Passenger and 
Ticket Agent. 

TACOMA, WASH.— 903 Pacific Ave.— E.E.Ellis, 
General Agent. 

TRINIDAD, COLO.— J. F. Linthurst, Ticket 

Agent. 
VICTORIA, B. C. — 100 Government St.— R. 

Hall, Ticket Agent. 




UNION PACIFIC, 

**THE OVERLAND ROUTE " 
IS THE 

MOST DIRECT LINE 

FROM 

THE MISSOURI RIVER 

TO 

All Principal Points West, 

And on Acconnt ot tlie Varied Gliaracter ol tk Conntry it Traverses, 

< 

Offers to those who contemplate going West a more greatly diversified 
territory to select from than does any other 

TRANS-CONTINENTAL LINE. 

Passing as it does through iVJ5J51?ASirA, KANSAS, TJ^XAS, N£^W 
MEXICO, COI^ORADO, WYOMING, UTAH, IDAHO, MON- 
TANA, 0R:E^G0N and WASHINGTON, every business interest is to 
be found along its line. 

Trk-w ^Vin Pn■»lYv^/^■n thousands of acres of rich agricultural land are 

jiorine Jiarmer, ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ settlement. 

For the Stock-Raiser, ^"LTecur'ed""""' '"'"' '""' 

PnT» fTiD TVTiTiDr *^® great mountains of the West await but the open- 
L UI Liitj IVllLLoI ; • j^g ^Q become the source of large fortunes, and 

Vnr flip "RnQinPciQ Man ^^® growing cities and towns of the West 
rUl mt; DUblUUbb IVlcin, ^^^ ^^-^y offering unequaled opportuni- 
ties for investment of capital and location of industries which are unsur- 
passed by older sections of the United States. 



For pamphlets descriptive of the above named States or Territories, or 
any information relative to the Union Pacific, call on or address any agent 
of this Company, whose name is given in the list on the inside cover, or 

S. H. H. CLARK, E. DICKINSON, E. L. LOMAX, 

President. General Manager. Gen'l Passenger & Ticket Agent, 



